UK - Theatre - The Making of a Pantomime Dame

Lee Mengo and Brian Hibbard are pantomime dames playing the role of the Ugly Sisters in a production of Cinderella at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport in Wales. "The pantomime is one of the few times doing theatre that you actually get to play to a working class audience because the working classes do not go to the theatre these days. So when they do go to the theatre I think it is important that they do not get short changed by a shoddy performance and actors taking it easy. The great thing about the audience is that a middle class audience will sit there very quietly, but if you are not pulling your weight in front of a working class audience they will let you know soon enough." (Brian Hibbard). A pantomime dame is a unique cross-dressing character who is a crucial part of any pantomime, a uniquely English theatrical tradition, put on during the Christmas. (Photo by Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images)