Widow Twankey


Widow Twankey is a female character in the pantomime Aladdin which takes place in either China, Arabia or Persia. The character is a pantomime dame, portrayed by a man; and is a comic foil to the principal boy, Aladdin—played by an actress.

History

The story of Aladdin is drawn from the Arabian Nights, a collection of Middle-Eastern fables. It was first published in England between 1704 and 1714; and this story was dramatised in 1788 by John O'Keefe for Covent Garden as a harlequinade and included the character of 'Aladdin's Mother' played by Mrs Davett. She was the widow of a tailor and this was the profession in many later versions. In 1813, she had the same profession but was the Widow Ching Mustapha, and again in 1836, played by Eva Marie Veigel, but the character was not yet comic nor played by a man.
In 1844 a burlesque version of the story described Widow Mustapha as 'a washerwoman with mangled feelings'. However in productions of the same year and most others up to 1891 she is involved with tailoring, with rare excursions to a newspaper shop and fishmonger. The laundry was already established as a place for a clown performance on the stage and began to be worked in, notably with Dan Leno as Twankay along with Aladdin's brother Washee-Washee in 1896.
The name Twankay appears first in 1861 in a play by Henry James Byron called Aladdin or the Wonderful Scamp, which established much of the content and style of the modern pantomime. It was performed by James Rogers who had previously played the female role Clorinda in a version of Cinderella. It was named after a cheap brand of China tea. Twankay, or 'twankey' is an inferior grade of green tea, with an old, ragged, open leaf – the implication is that the widow is 'past her best' — with the name Twankay deriving from Tunxi in Anhui, from where the tea in China originates. Occasionally, the spelling of her name in the programme is varied to make it look more like a "Chinese" personal name – e.g., "Tuang Kee Chung" in a 1979 musical version.
The character has had a number of different names including Ching Ching, Wee Ping, Chow Chow, and Tan King.

Some notable people who have played Widow Twankey