Pantomime in August?
Published: 18 July 2013
The popular exhibition Pantomime in Scotland is being revived on campus this summer, by the Centre for Open Studies, at the St Andrew's Building from 21 August - 2 October.
The popular Pantomime in Scotland exhibition is being revived on campus this summer, by the Centre for Open Studies, at the St Andrew's Building from 21 August - 2 October.
The exhibition was first produced by Pantomime in Scotland: 'Your other national theatre' , an AHRC-funded research project based at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies from 2007-2010. It was specially designed to play in the front of house areas of theatres, and visited pantomime theatres across Scotland during the 2008/9 and 2009/10 pantomime seasons.
Drawing on work from the research project, the exhibition celebrates all aspects of the past and present of Scottish pantomime – its stories, its stars, its humour, its magnificent sets and costumes and, above all, its special place in the hearts of audiences across Scotland. 
In telling the story of Scottish pantomime, from its Victorian origins right up to the present day, the exhibition features pictures, photographs and playbills from a wide range of sources, including Glasgow University Library Scottish Theatre Archive and the collections of performers, producers and audience members themselves.
It also includes rarely seen archive film footage from the National Library of Scotland, Scottish Screen Archive of pantomimes in theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, featuring stars such as Jack Anthony, Dave Willis, George West, Harry Gordon and Will Fyffe, as well as extracts from a range of pantomime music and oral history recordings featuring the memories of audience members and performers of the past and present.
Opening hours for the interactive exhibition, which is free and suitable for all ages, are: from 21 August to 13 September 2013, Monday to Friday 9.30-17.00: from 16 September to 2 October 2013, Monday to Thursday, 9.30–21.00; Fridays 9.30-17.00; and Saturday 28 Sept 2013, 9.30–17.00.
The exhibition is being revived here to mark the launch of the Centre for Open Studies' new course on Scottish music hall, variety and pantomime, which begins in November. This short course, which takes place from 10:00-12:00 over three consecutive Saturdays from 16 November, explores the history of Scottish music hall and its rich historical and social context - from its origins in fairground geggies and the national drama to the Scotch comics of the Victorian era, the emergence of variety theatre, and the great Scottish stars of the 1930s and 1940s such as Tommy Lorne, Harry Gordon and Dave Willis. Concluding with the story of variety's successor, pantomime, the course combines illustrated talks featuring audio and archive film extracts with the opportunity to share memories of pantomime and variety.
For more information, contact:
Dr Paul Maloney, Honorary Research Fellow, School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ.
Photo credit: Elaine C Smith and Gerard Kelly in Aladdin, 2002 (King’s Theatre, Glasgow)
First published: 18 July 2013
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