To be panicking about offering some panto entertainment...

[Arseendofadonkey]

Help! Posting here for traffic.

Every year (for the last 25 years or more) our entire family (my parents, my siblings, our kids and grandkids) attend an afternoon panto followed by a meal out and in the last 12 years by a big party back at my house. My mum pays for the panto as a Christmas present to us all. My dad pays for the party food and drink (they are divorced but still great friends).

This year, the only day we could get together is the day the local panto is having a day off so my mum tasked me with putting together a panto for us to perform together at my house. She transferred money to me to pay for props etc which I put in a separate account and my menopausal brain immediately forgot.

I have just been reminded. Sigh.

How can i put together even the most basic 10 minute panto, with even the most basic of props in the couple of hours I possibly have free between now and then. I have very little time left to throw anything together.

I have tried googling DIY panto kits, online pantos that offer audience participation etc but I'm not seeing much to work with.

Has anyone done anything like this or have any ideas or am i going to disappointment my elderly mother who loves a good panto?

Ideas on a postcard please.

To add: We would all be the performers. So from 80 years down to toddlers.

Oh OP you poor thing. How awful. Panto is actually quite hard to perform well. Maybe just do a scene from one if you find a script online? Or watch the CBeebies panto?

I'd be giving that a swerve, seeing a panto in the New Year, watching one on the tv, and sending the money back.

Watch a panto-esque film with themed food and drinks instead - way easier

Christ that sounds horrific.

I know that not helpful! Sorry 😬

Here's a DIY panto...

www.middlechildtheatre.co.uk/diy-panto/

Recreate a favourite scene from a Christmas film?

What did I just read?!

This is completely ridiculous and unrealistic. Tell her no. Go to the cinema instead.

annperrin.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/cinderella-the-whole-panto-in-five-minutes/

grab a pretty dress and a crown for Cinders, witch’s hat and wand from a pound shop for Fairy Godmother, mouse masks and a cut out of a pumpkin and Bob’s your uncle!

Bloody hell not a chance.
some friends of mine hired a company to come and do a mini panto in their back garden last weekend, you could look into something like that?

Sorry OP but I’m in stitches here. Unless you’re a theatre director or writer as your job, this will be unequivocally a massive ball ache to organise, as well as awkward and shit on the day. Why on Earth did you agree to this?!

Sorry if this seems a little rude but is your mum usually so bloody ridiculous?? How on earth are you meant to do that, even with time on your side? Pantos don’t just spontaneously happen, there’s a reason there’s months of rehearsals etc before pantomimes 🤦🏼‍♀️

Sounds hellish, but then I don’t even like playing charades. Good luck op!

Our local cinemas are showing classic Christmas films. Book that instead and treat everyone to popcorn with the money!

nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/events/dick-whittington-on-demand/

here you go OP. Panto in your living room

I think that could be the worst idea I've ever seen on here

Yeah dont do this. Expensive, time consuming, fun for no one...what's anyone getting out of this. Book something else instead, a concert or kids play or something. Or buy an amazing family game. Tell people your local area and people will suggest something

Ah, my friend is in that one! She’s on the poster 🥰

I’ve seen it, it was good

This is ridiculous. Don't put yourself through that pain. Pick a Christmas movie and put that on instead.

If everyone’s in the panto who is watching it? 🤔Just no.

www.pantoonline.co.uk/ put this on a big screen as a substitute. It’s by Peter Duncan and was done over lockdown and is fab.

You just can't - it's not possible!

What's your DM expecting, everyone rocks up and manages to 'do' the panto spontaneously?! You'll all be reading from the scripts from a start - there won't be any chance for 'props'.

Who's she imagining will be the audience getting the benefit of it? If you're all in it you'll either be reading lines, or reading the script to see when your next line is.

There's a reason these things take months of rehearsals - I'm in a panto am dram group and they're quite frankly shit and unfunny for the first several weeks. No one's got their delivery right or comic timing sussed, they're tripping over lines and missing cues.

Honestly it'll just be a massive disappointment. Can you go to a different panto that day? Or see one being screened somewhere? Cinemas sometimes do live screenings of big professional productions.

They’re gonna line up the DC’s dollies and teddies and then use their hands to make the dollies and teddies clap afterwards

Have you all completely lost your minds? I'd rather never see my family again than attempt this debacle. Christ almighty.

Talk about putting my stressful Christmas into perspective.