About the book

“provides a fascinating insight into the pantomime industry and its many differing practices and conventions during an era of extreme transformation, not only on stage, but also in society.” Simon Sladen, New Theatre Quarterly

“Sullivan’s book marries painstaking work at the coalface of the archive with a thoughtful and illuminating narrative, resulting in a carefully considered account of how theatre managers engaged local audiences, while still trying to make a profit. The Society for Theatre Research and the University of Hertfordshire Press should be recognized and commended for their commitment to publishing this kind of work, which is necessary for the development of our discipline. Sullivan offers a cornucopia of archival detail: amusing, pointed, always informed by a broader sense of party politics, local and national, and a truly comprehensive bibliography. For this alone, scholars of popular performance history should keep returning to this book.” Katherine Newey, Studies in Theatre and Performance

The Politics of the Pantomime examines English pantomime productions in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, focusing not on the pantomimes of the major London theatres but rather on the variety and independence of those in the provinces, in particular the three urban centres of Nottingham, Birmingham and Manchester.

Many regional productions were far from being pale imitations of Drury Lane spectacle and although sometimes curtailed by the practicalities of local economics, producers and writers nevertheless used their inventiveness to create pantomimes that were rooted in specific expressions of local cultural identity.