Labyrinth

It was supposed to be a day of Christmas shopping but it din’t quite turn out as planned. After a bacon sandwich breakfast, we were in Kingston about 12:30. In John Lewis we saw the preparation for Santa’s grotto and I was going to use it as the photo of the day but decided not to spoil the magic. Kingston was quite busy as, I assume, others had had the same idea.  We didn’t really find a lot in either John Lewis or Bentalls - PY was looking for a specific bottle of Verve Cliqot but we couldn’t locate it.  In the end we went to the market square where, in addition to the regular market, there are a few Christmas stalls.  We ended up with some lovely deep-friend Brie and pomegranate (with chips) for lunch. It set us up nicely for the walk home.

We started to put up some of the Christmas decorations. I am letting PY take care this year as I generally do it and he isn’t that keen on the multi-coloured rainbow of a Christmas tree that I come up with. We will see what it looks like but it will be a tree with only a single colour (maybe two). I am sure the word ‘tasteful’ will be used.

We had tickets to a production of Peter Pan’s Labyrinth, a kind of panto or Christmas fairytale mashup, at The Vaults theatre near Waterloo. As we were about to leave we noticed that the was some disruption (again) on the trains and the only train we could get would be very tight to make the performance. In the end we ran out of the house and took a bus to South Wimbledon and headed to Waterloo on the Northern Line. I was constantly checking the timings to make sure it was running to schedule.  In the end we made better progress than we thought and had plenty of time.

The theatre bar is also part of the stage for this production which meant queuing for a couple of glasses of wine had to be calculated to happen before the performance started.  It’s a wonderfully camp production and I was worried that our seats on the very front row (which were the only ones available when we got there) would make us targets for the audience participation but it gave us a fabulous view.  I am not sure I can explain the story but Peter Pan ends up trapped in Labyrinth trying to get out to make Tinkerbell’s wedding. The Guardian review sums it up:

To achieve this, he must first navigate the labyrinth of our master of ceremonies, the Goblin King – basically, Bowie in shock wig and glam stylings.

The entire cast (of four) played all the parts. It was wonderful.

The train home was better. We’d eaten before we left but still ended up with a pizza.