Beauty And The Beast

It’s been a long day, today. Up at silly o’clock for an early morning drive down to Chester. Found out on Friday afternoon that my sister was coming home from hospital today, but I was the only person (apparently!) who had a key to her house. Could I be there for 10am please. I made it just in time, though I needn’t have rushed as the patient transport arranged for 10 didn’t turn up until 11! With a team of social workers and care staff there as well as me and Mrs C, it was no wonder she looked a bit overwhelmed when she walked through the door. I handed over the key and left so that she could settle in. I’ll call before Xmas to see how she’s getting on.
So we were back in good time for the evenings entertainment - the Lancaster Adult Panto. A talented group of actors (they normally run murder mystery events) have been putting on an adult version of a pantomime at Lancaster for the past 16 years. We’d been once before but a limited number of shows that sell out quickly and other commitments meant we hadn’t seen one for several years. They use the scenery of whatever the normal Footlights Panto is, though this has no relevance to their production. Last night, we were asked to believe that we were in a small village in France despite the backdrop of London behind them (Footlights are doing Dick Whittington this year)
Naturally, the taking of photographs is banned, but I’m not sure I could have published anything anyway even if it were! All the elements of a pantomime were there - a Dame, a Baddie, a Princess and a Hero, etc. - and there was a lot of slapstick and bad jokes. Even a couple of song and dance routines, all delivered very slickly.
But - and this was a big butt (sorry, couldn’t resist) - this was not a show for anyone offended by bad language or constant sexual references. Thankfully, we weren’t and nor were the rest of the audience. I laughed throughout and thoroughly enjoyed it. To be honest, it wasn’t that dissimilar to some of our BATS rehearsals, it’s just that we have to remove all the bad language for our performances! We have talked about doing an “adult” performance of our show, but it’s not as simple as just swearing a lot and making crude jokes - that looks crass.
Which is why I take my hat off to last nights performers. They delivered a very “traditional” pantomime but in a way that would make even a Sergeant Major blush! Obviously, the show started at a later hour, so it was not until gone midnight that we arrived home. And went straight to bed, having been up for nearly twenty hours - six of which were spent on the M6 - and driven over 200 miles!