A newspaper with a half-completed crossword is seen in the dressing room of actor Tim Treslove before a performance of "Dick Whittington and the Pi-rats of the Caribbean" at the Mercury Theatre in the town of Colchester in England December 18, 2008. Irreverently based on children's fairy tales, pantomime is theatre rooted in the 16th-century travelling street entertainment from Italy, Commedia dell' Arte. In Britain it has played a leading role at Christmas since Victorian times -- for the majority of theatres the annual "panto" is often the highest earner, and subsidises more adventurous pieces. To match feature BRITAIN-PANTO/ REUTERS/Simon Newman (BRITAIN)