In November 2020, Adam Penford and his cast were doing in-person technical rehearsals for Cinderella, Nottingham Playhouse’s annual pantomime show, when he heard the news that the theater wouldn’t be allowed to open as planned at the beginning of December. It wasn’t entirely unexpected—the show’s opening had already been pushed back a week because of COVID-19 restrictions—but it was unwelcome news nonetheless. The Playhouse has been producing pantomimes—a uniquely British family theater tradition with roots in Italian commedia dell’arte, illicit 18th-century mime, and Victorian variety performance—for 37 years. Penford, the…
