Black Night at the Theatre

J-kid decided to volunteer with me at the Newmarket Theatre, so we went and got him black pants and a white shirt - (almost dressed up!) and showed up for a performance by the Famous People Players. I had begged to volunteer for this one - these guys put on a magical show with black light puppets.

The first half of tonight's performance was "An Evening at the Opera". Halfway through Act 1, three teenaged boys (son incl.) worm their way out of Row Q and whisper that they have to solve the coat problem.

By intermission, I was relieved to see the "coat problem" solved (there were missing ticket numbers and mismatched coats) but surprised at their remarks...

"I don't get it"

(I'm thinkin' "Too much Gameboy, Not Enough Opera")

"What don't you get?"

"Uhhhh, it's just dumb"

"What's dumb?"

(A little projection here, methinks)

"I've seen puppets before - it's all the same. Boring"

(These are the guys that can't hang up a coat in numerical order. I think I'll wait until I get MY slave-boy back in the car)

I'm back to watch the second half - which is more of a school-show "Tommy the SnowFlake Journeys to Many Lands" -and not quite as witty as the first half. The troupe deserved a standing O, and we were treated to a beautiful rendition of some famous movie song that I can't remember right now, but it brought buckets to my eyes anyway. Some guy in front of me asked if I needed a mop.

Back in car, a somewhat disappointed first-time volunteer tells me that the other two boys just thought differently...giggled at "gay" stuff and all.

(Good for you, child, you don't ever have to fall prey to what everyone else thinks. Even if I do.)

"And about the show? Did you recognize the music?"

"All of it."

(Yeah, right. I hear him humming the Mikado all the time)

"It didn't make sense."

"It wasn't supposed to....just little visual snippets to support or interpret the music."

"I was trying to figure out the story"

"So you were frustrated with that, and didn't get it, so you just gave up on it...?"

"Kinda."

(Is this MY son?)

"Would you have liked it if you had known just to watch for the visuals?"

"Maybe."


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Sigh. New black pants, black light puppets, blank kid.