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Commedia dell’arte
Transformation scenes started as a way of moving between the different sections of the pantomime. Rather than just stopping one section and starting another, actors found creative and imaginative ways to transform the story into the Harlequinade.
During the transformation scenes the actors would take off the giant head masks that they had worn for the story and remove their costumes to reveal themselves as the Commedia dell'arte characters. As pantomime developed and stage technology became more advanced the transformations became events in themselves. It was designer William Beverley who first used the transformation scenes to alter stage sets. Scenery was flown in from above on wires or changed by a series of hinged flaps. Trick objects turned around to become another object. Beverley introduced a 'fan effect' where the scenery collapsed sideways and inwards, like a folding fan, to reveal a view from behind.
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Soon audiences expected to be impressed by the stage technology of a pantomime. The names of scene painters and other technicians began to appear on playbills. A good transformation scene was as big an attraction to an audience as a famous actor. Here is a playbill advertising Harlequin and Old Mother Shipton at Sadlers Wells Theatre in 1801, listing all the different locations and spectacle the pantomime offered.
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Playbill: Harlequin & Old Mother Shipton |
By the 1890s pantomimes were lavish affairs and audiences expected fabulous sets and fantastical transformation scenes.
More information about scenery and stage illusions in pantomime
