A few days ago Theatre Scotland announced that it would not be covering pantomime productions of ‘Aladdin’ unless it featured a diverse cast. We gained a lot of support from all corners of Scotland’s theatre industry in regards to this statement. Of course, we have received some backlash for making such a progressive statement as asking people to stop whitewashing stories which ultimately should be told by people of other ethnicities. But when you think of it, this request is neither progressive nor radical. The Scottish theatre community whether professional or amateur should have a basic understanding that white-washing stories belongs in the past.
This article and our statement was aimed at no production in particular, we had already received review requests for pantomime productions of ‘Aladdin’ and not a single one had revised their approach to what we have seen for decades on stage.
‘Aladdin’ is a great pantomime tale, that is not what is being disputed here. However, in the panto version; the setting and characters featured are built upon racist and dated stereotypes.
“Old Peking” or “Agrabah” are the two settings of ‘Aladdin’. “Old Peking” is based in China where we’ve seen cast literally put eyeliner on in an attempt to seem Asian and also clear cultural appropriation within the costume design, along with jokes designed to criticize or mock Asian culture or language. “Agrabah” is the route the more professional productions have taken, where we see the pantomime set in a fictional town in the Middle East (much like Disney’s ‘Aladdin’) although there are still inappropriate racial stereotypes in there for an all-white cast.
“Widow Twankey”, “Wishee Washee” “Ping” or “Pong”… do we really need to go into why these characters are problematic?
The panto adaptation of ‘Aladdin’ needs to be altered for a modern audience, where the story has been modified and preferably overseen by creatives from the countries where this fictional tale takes place. As this story should celebrate their culture rather than make a mockery of it. Some productions have attempted to do this, embracing the beauty of Asian culture, however they have done this without consultation or inclusion of the Asian community. Pantomime is supposed to be a joyous occasion and is embedded within British culture, so to splice that with the rich heritage of other cultures would make ‘Aladdin’ an even more special tale to grace our stages at Christmas. This is not “cancel culture”, this is progression where we are adjusting already established tales and making them appropriate for future audiences.
Theatre Scotland wants to be as inclusive as possible in the types of theatre we review, however our vision is to cover a contemporary, forward-thinking, diverse and progressive Scottish Theatre landscape. Therefore going forward we are being mindful of the productions we are covering. ‘Aladdin’ falls into one of the productions that we only review under casting and creative conditions. The same goes for productions such as ‘Hairspray’, ‘Once On This Island’, ‘Miss Saigon’ and other productions such as this.
As someone who as a child was involved in productions which now were clearly not appropriate, I’ve been that person who believes in the moment it’s acceptable to creatively explore stories which just aren’t mines to tell. However, now when equality, diversity and the messages that those stories hold is so clear, you can’t ignore how inappropriate it is to commission such productions with an all-white cast.
And now as a creative who is currently working on a pantomime, ‘Aladdin’ was never on the table, and never would be for the company I am working for, unless we had the cast to facilitate that and a new vision compared to previous versions of the panto. There are many stories that amateur and professional theatre companies can choose from if they only have a white cast such as ‘Cinderella’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Beauty and The Beast’, ‘Snow White’, ‘Mother Goose’, ‘Goldilocks and The Three Bears’, ‘Robin Hood’, ‘Peter Pan’ and the list goes on. There isn’t really an excuse or a rationale for why ‘Aladdin’ would be acceptable.
Most of our team work, live and breathe theatre, they’re not looking to suffocate it, they’re looking to make it better. This is why we will not apologize for our statement and we stand by our decision. We hope that theatre companies will re-think their approach to such productions or avoid the story entirely if they cannot facilitate a diverse production.
Theatre Scotland 