the english christmas panto

last night we went along to a traditional english christmas-time activity--the panto! usually these are children's oriented theatre productions, with lots of audience interaction, bad jokes and double entendre. ours, “aladdin on the jolly roger” was an adult variety, but had similar themes. the online synopsis reads:

"flamboyant and colourful adaptation of the story of aladdin, transposing the action to a desert island, where he is helped by his trusty side-kick wishee-washee, yet faced by dastardly pirates, a royal party and some hungry canibals."

the panto was great fun, but we ended up sitting in front of a group of rather drunk 30-somethings from chelsea who spent much of the panto talking loudly amongst themselves. they really only paid attention to the jokes when their friend was on stage. during one of her scenes, the actors were singing a cheesy 80s love song, and one of the female neighbours nudged me on the shoulder, and said "let's sway!" begging me to join them in swaying back and forth to the music. it wouldn't have been out of place, but i didn't oblige.

part way through the second act, they made a mobile phone call. screaming loudly into the phone over the noise of the actors' voices (how dare the actors speak so loudly while on stage, after all? it really ruins the audience's fun) they passed the phone down the aisle so everyone in their little group would have a chance to speak. everyone else within a 30 meter radius gave them a good glare. what we should have done is given them one of these fantastic cards, especially designed to quiet obnoxious mobile phone users.

Comments

[ryan]

Swaying should happen spontaneously - not be asked for. "Let's sway." Hmph.