Puss in Boots Pantomime, January 5th 2014
I don't remember having seen anything called Puss in Boots before, although I have heard of it. I get it mixed up with another story about a dick and his cat, but that one hasn't got boots.
So – the annual EFOG pantomime visit, organised by Pam this year and - as last - at Greenwich. I arrived about 12 minutes early to meet the group at 3pm, so - rather than wait about - decided to visit the Cutty Sark and make use of the few remaining days left of my annual pass. I met Sue S. as I made my way round to the ship, and she said I couldn't do it, but I thought I could. Bit of a hold-up at the check-in – though nothing like Stanstead and you don't have to go through an X-ray machine – but it meant that by the time I'd walked around the ship – waving to the security cameras – disembarked and got back to the DLR station, I was 5 minutes late. Well, I was in that mood where I didn't care, and apparently some of the others had just arrived, so anyway – we went and had a pizza. I blagged an early check-in of my two-for-one voucher from the last P.E. visit (it was supposed to be valid only after 5pm, but the manageress took a fancy to me – understandably). As it turned out – it was a real winner 'cos when the bill came up we had got two lots of two-for-one, so we shared out the winnings.
Back to the Pantomime, to which we then made our way. Unfortunately there were loads of kids there, but the sheer numbers of EFOG members overwhelmed them. We had loads of rows of seats between us, and a lot of waving went on between separated parties. This led to some confusion for the rest of the audience because some obviously thought we were waving at them. There is a funny atmosphere at pantomimes.
The show itself - like most pantomimes, I find – was quite hard to follow. The plot starts off well enough, then people start bursting into song and asking the audience to participate in the oddest ways. Even the plot seems confused: as an example one of the leading characters (the one who had the cat; is his name Dick?) was from Arkansas or somewhere silly like that. The year of 1517 was mentioned as being when this was supposed to have taken place, and yet I don't think Arkansas was invented then. The cat was supposed to be male, but (figure notwithstanding – it certainly wasn't outstanding but then it was a cat-suit) I think it was a female dressed up. And a very large and tall women – who was quite funny, admittedly – was obviously a man, even though she wasn't wearing a cat-suit. This always seems to happen in these plays, and it is all very confusing.
I suppose I enjoyed it, even though I hadn't intended to, and I suppose ( all being well) I shall find myself in a similar position of unreality next year – or even this year if we go before next January 1st – which is always a possibility.
Paul Ferris, January 5th (by the way, thanks, Pam, for organising it)