A grim ugly character in pantomime (9)

I believe the answer is:

rigmarole

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'pantomime' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?

'a grim ugly character' is the wordplay.
'ugly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'character' becomes 'role' ('role' can be a synonym of 'character'**).
'a'+'grim'='agrim'
'agrim' anagrammed gives 'rigma'.
'rigma'+'role'='RIGMAROLE'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rigmarole that I've seen before include "Lengthy and complicated procedure" , "red tape?" , "boring series" , "garbled nonsense" , "Long, rambling statement or complicated procedure" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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