"Pahn-too-mean? Mais qu'est-ce-que c'est ça??", the French exclaim in mock horror, fully expecting to learn about yet another English folly that only mad dogs and yes, the English could possibly find an interest in.
Ah! But there is an exception!
In the village of Tremolat in the Dordogne, at the Pyramide recreation centre, each year for the past three years, the English community has braved the local French upturned noses, puffed out cheeks and shrugging of shoulders, persevered and stoically pushed on with their pantomimes, and this year, for the first time, the entire pantomime was performed with a French majority in the cast of players!
After the success of Cinderella last year, the intrepid producers put on Snowhite and the Seven Giants this year -- three performances, all to packed audiences.
The cast members were not necessarily chosen for their acting talents, nor for their ability to remember their lines, but once in their costumes and make-up, they all rose to the occasion and caused great mirth and merriment to children and adults alike. That is one thing about a good pantomime -- the sheer ridiculousness of grown men dressed up as women and turning the campest of camp for the occasion, and the clever wordplay and double entendres and risque content of the script are all sure-fire ways to provide an excellent evening of entertainment for all. A very interesting difference this year was that the pantomime was in French -- and the question has to be : How does one translate English humour and sense of the outrageous into French? Well, it was achieved -- with the outstanding translating talents of Jill Castle, who not only managed to translate the humour, but managed to translate the idiom and the wordplay as well. 
And, with no thanks to a good 'friend', I was 'volunteered' to paint the scenery for the play. A mammoth task, but great fun none-the-less! Forty-two meters of unbleached cotton to be sewn into huge back drops for the stage, tubs of paint, brushes, glorious days of sunshine which enabled me to lay out the canvas on the tiles around the pool, getting up onto the a chair on top of a table and holding the camera as high as I could to take pics to try and get the right perspective, crawling around on my hands and knees, a few foot prints -- mine and the cat's for authenticity -- and voila! A forest scene with the castle in the back ground, a giant oak tree in the foreground, a street scene in front of the castle, the queen's boudoir and of course, the giant's cottage.
And then I hear someone say "Right - pantomime in French --- but a pantomime in March?" The reason for this was that the original date around Christmas time was postponed because half the giants were on holiday, then postponed again because the wicked queen was on holiday, then postponed again because......... Anyway -- if you break one rule or two rules of pantomime, why not all of them? All for a good cause, as Nici would say! The proceeds, which was quite sizeable once again, go to help Youssou and the school in Warang, Senegal, where the Wicked Queen - Jocelyne and Dominique spend all their spare time to assist this poor community in their plight.
Well done to Liz and Vicky -- and everyone who worked so hard to bring yet another successful panto to the Dordogne!
A few pics of the players:
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