One of the greatest and most important theatrical traditions in contemporary Caribbean theatre, the Jamaica Pantomime is very closely associated with the work of Jamaican journalist, playwright, broadcaster, radio/TV personality, theatre director and administrator Barbara Gloudon (February 5, 1935 – May 11, 2022). Gloudon had been connected to pantomime since 1969 and was among its most influential personalities in the modern era, as the most dominant scriptwriter and arguably its most influential shaper. She had been either in the presence of or partly responsible for theatrical directions in and around pantomime in recent years.
Decorated with the high national honour Order of Jamaica in 1992 and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the UWI in 2012, she was also inducted as a Fellow of the Institute of Jamaica in 2014. It would appear that most of her acclaim had to do with her distinguished career in the field of journalism; she worked with The Gleaner, edited The Star, hosted long-running and outstanding TV series, and wrote a ground-breaking newspaper column in Patois among other accomplishments.
However, she also made an impact on Caribbean theatre arising from her work with pantomime and spinoffs in the wider arena. Her first association with the stage at a national level was as a playwright, after she accepted an invitation from Greta and Henry Fowler, founders of the Little Theatre Movement (LTM), to write a script for the annual pantomime. She wrote Moonshine Anancy (1969) which has two characteristics important to this form of theatre. It brought back or maintained the folklore trickster Brer Anansi into the pantomime and it secured the production’s function as a topical satire by focusing on the American landing on the moon which had a deep impact on the world. The pantomime came into its own as social and political commentary.
From there, Gloudon progressed to being the dominant scriptwriter for the pantomime, writing more than 30 plays for the annual production, right up to 2018/2019. These include many significant scripts, some of which shaped the directions in which the pantomime has gone. However, it was not without a touch of controversy in the opinion of some Jamaican dramatists/producers who were critical of her dominance and influence. There was the feeling that the annual musical drama might benefit from a greater variety of writers and the practice of inviting and opening the door to a wide range of playwrights should have been more observed. On the other hand, it was said that such a pool of potential writers was not as forthcoming as those critics felt.
Gloudon also went on to become the chairman of the LTM, the oldest and most traditional theatre company in Jamaica, and probably in the Caribbean. This company initiated the pantomime and continues to be responsible for its annual production. Gloudon was credited with direct involvement, along with director/actor Brian Heap in significant advancements, such as the formation of the LTM Pantomime Company in 1985. The pantomime had developed to the point where it had outgrown the status of merely another stage production, and had become a distinct and demanding form of theatre. This demanded the style of traditional “Caribbean Performance” known in the storytelling tradition, involving acting, mime, movement, song, music and dance, and demanding company members who were actors/actresses, singers, dancers and musicians. This called for a company devoted to this brand of theatre, which could also be devoted to full seasons and overseas tours.
This brings to the fore, exactly what the pantomime is and how/why it should be regarded as a particular form of theatre over and above a usual stage play. Its official name is The Annual National LTM Pantomime Musical, and it is a satirical musical drama which opens each year on Boxing Day and runs for several months. It is topical, drawing on comedy, using humour to comment satirically on social and political events. Its language is local including Jamaican Patois, making use of folklore and traditions and a few stock characters. It is always performed with a live band in the Orchestra Pit, fortified by rich choreography. Most of its songs are in the form of folk music, but it also includes other popular local genres such as reggae and dancehall.
It has its origins in the old English pantomime and mummery, folk theatre dating back to the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Quite popular at the time were pantomime forms such as the European Commedia Dell’Arte, the travelling performances of the Troubadours on the continent and the Christmas mummings and pantomime in Britain. The Christmas pantomime was taken to Jamaica.
The LTM was formed by the Fowlers in 1941 and performed the English fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk. The annual performances continued from there with a long line of English tales. Jamaican elements, including folk tales such as Soliday and the Wicked Bird, were gradually incorporated. The folk trickster Anansi was included and annual pantomimes enlisted him as hero or villain. There was a mixture of British characters such as Busha Bluebeard with localised influences like Anancy and Pandora or Anancy and Beenie Bud. The transformation deepened in a number of other ways, as created by legendary comedian Ranny Williams.
“Maas Ran” became an early part of the evolution of the Jamaica pantomime along with the Fowlers, Louise (Miss Lou) Bennett, Noel Vaz and others.
For a long time pantomime’s leading lady and leading man were almost compulsorily played by Williams and Bennet. Gloudon joined the pantomime at a time when such transformations were taking place. For example, one of her early plays was The Witch (1975), based on the Jamaican folk legend of Annie Palmer, “The White Witch of Rose Hall”. Jamaican legends had replaced the English fairy tales as plot material. Additionally, The Witch was the last pantomime starring Bennett, who retired from the stage after that.
Another script by Gloudon was Hail Columbus (1972) which revisited the arrival of Europeans in a Jamaica inhabited by Amerindians, a topical issue at a time of growing nationalism, self consciousness and identity. Pantomimes were increasingly interrogating such issues. Further, this was the first performance in which Oliver Samuels appeared in a role he later took over from Williams, who was on the verge of retiring. Williams’s Anansi, a trickster character, was the source of much of the laughter in pantomime. Samuels made quite a success of it after Williams’s retirement.
Yet another important play by Gloudon came out of summer workshops conducted for the company and involving Brian Heap. The company created performances based on its characteristic ‘Caribbean Performance’ with dance and music in honour of emancipation. Out of this, appropriately, Gloudon wrote Augus Mawnin (August Morning) 1997, a play about emancipation, drawing on the traditional Jamaican song “Aaagus Maanin” celebrating freedom from slavery and in praise of Queen Victoria on the Golden Jubilee of her reign.
Many of Gloudon’s pantomimes deepened the topical satire, such as the outstanding Schoolahs, sometimes written as Schoolers (1984), which was revisited in a second play of the same name many years later. This tackled a phenomenon that was growing with many implications in Jamaican urban society – a humorous take-off on the presence of school children in the society and the popular culture.
The Gloudon influence on style also became significant. The ICC Cricket World Cup was played in the West Indies, and, not surprisingly, the pantomime drew on this for topical subject matter. Gloudon’s Howzatt! was performed in 2006. This was not among the great pantomimes as it was somewhat diffused. The most popular Jamaican theatre has been comedy, more specifically, farce and roots. Perhaps, in the spirit of competition and a pitch for the box office, Howzatt! diluted a number of the deep-rooted characteristics of the pantomime tradition. It was a case of pantomime, having spent decades evolving into a unique form, compromising its strengths under a popular influence.
Much of the lost ground seemed to have been made up by 2018 with the creation of All Aboard by Gloudon. This play engaged an important topical and historical issue. It was about Jamaicans contemplating and actually taking up migration to Britain aboard a fictionalised ship, the “Windy Rush”. It replayed the historic voyage made by the HMT Empire Windrush which landed at Tilbury in England on June 21, 1948, with 1,027 passengers, 539 of whom were Jamaicans. Very topical in 2018 was the scandal caused by the UK’s threats to deport many immigrants who were part of “the Windrush Generation” that settled in the UK.
This was a more robust play, restoring many of the characteristics that were the strengths of the pantomime. Some elements, like the villain and the main comic character created by Williams, still remained weak, but pantomime in 2018 looked a bit more reformed. Over the years dance and movement became a particular strength of the traditional performance. Gloudon was part of the very thorough, creative and exciting choreography done by Rex Nettleford for several years. That continued after Nettleford, and involved such dancers as Jackie Guy. That trademark shape returned, along with a deeper script based on the issues pushing migration and the traditional romantic main plot.
After the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, LTM halted production of the 2019/2020 pantomime “Ruckshon Junction”. Last year’s pantomime was done virtually on the traditional December 26, and again on December 27. It was titled Rebel K, with characters and storyline developed by the Pantomime Workshop team led by Barbara’s daughter Anya Gloudon and directed by Pierre Lemaire with music by Grub Cooper and Khaffari Beatzz.
