The Pantaloons

The Pantaloons were founded in 2004 at the University of Kent, performing an all-male, open-air production of As You Like It in Canterbury, Kent.[1] They regrouped the following year for a small-scale tour of The Winter’s Tale, which involved their first free performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[2] The scale of their tours has increased since then, and the company now tour extensively across the UK.

The Pantaloons have produced a variety of free performances every year since 2005 in public spaces such as The Scoop, London, Preston Park, Brighton, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Since their foundation, the company have performed:

• As You Like It (2004)
• The Winter’s Tale (2005)
• Romeo and Juliet (2006, 2009 and 2016)
• Cymbeline (2006)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2007 and 2013)
• The Taming of the Shrew (2008)
• Twelfth Night (2009)
• Much Ado About Nothing (2010 and 2015)
• Macbeth (2010)
• A Christmas Carol (2010, 2011 and 2012)
• The Canterbury Tales (2011, 2012 and 2016)
• The Importance of Being Earnest (2012 and 2016)
• Grimm Fairy Tales (2012)
• Sherlock Holmes (2013 and 2014)
• The Tempest (2014)
• The Pantaloons' History of Britain (2014)
• Bleak House (2014 and 2015)
• Pride and Prejudice (2015)
• Treasure Island (2015)
• Gulliver's Travels (2016)

The company toured with productions of Pride and Prejudice and A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2017.[1] In May 2018 it went on tour with an adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, with the cast comprising Chris Coxon, Fiona McGarvey, Alex Rivers and Christopher Smart.[3] From June to September 2018 it toured with Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest,[4] and from July to September 2018 it toured with As You Like It.[5]

The Pantaloons Treasure Island, Summer 2015. Left to right, Samuel John, Chris Coxon, Louis Labovitch.

The company began to attract national attention with their 2008 production of The Taming of the Shrew, with coverage in The Guardian and Independent newspapers focusing largely on their free shows and family appeal.[6] Their Romeo and Juliet was listed by The Sunday Times in 2009 as one of their picks for the summer.[7]

As of 2015, the company also give school workshops on Shakespeare for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4.[8]

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the early closure of their 2020 theatre tour of Bleak House.[9] To recoup lost box-office revenue, they adapted the show into a radio play and a crowdfunding model was adopted to finance the venture.[10] This is The Pantaloons' first (and to date, only) full length show available in a recorded medium.

The play was adapted for radio and directed by Alex Rivers, while audio production and editing was by Chris Coxon. The cast were Edward Ferrow, Alex Rivers, Emily Beach, Neil Jennings and Chris Coxon.[11]

• Official site of The Pantaloons
• Official site of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• Official site of the Brighton Festival Fringe
• Official site of The Scoop