Sorry if the title of this blog is misleading – it was the title of a play I took the boys to. One of the things the boys, in particular Jack, have become obsessed with on this trip is the Horrible Histories series of books and TV shows. So when they saw that a play titled Horrible Christmas was showing at the Lowry they couldn’t resist.
We had booked an evening show and Yvette decided to take Audrey to the cinema for a Girls’ Night Out to watch Ballerina. They left the hotel a little before the boys and I walked a few blocks away to catch a bus. Thankfully, the bus arrived shortly after we arrived at the stop. We hadn’t travelled on this bus before so we were flying a little blind on when to get off. We weren’t even sure if it stopped at the Lowry itself or just close to it. So when it was near the Lowry and started to turn in a different direction we hopped off. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the Lowry, we saw it waiting at the stop right outside for its return journey – at least we knew where to catch it on the way back.
We arrived as planned, with enough time for dinner. The boys chose a French café, Café Rouge. Although the food was delicious, we were forced to eat quickly to catch the show on time. Eating quickly is not one of Harry’s strengths so the struggle was very real. With a few spoonfuls of ice cream still in his bowl we raced across the square to arrive at the theatre in the nick of time.
The boys were excited to discover I had secured front row seats, a fact I kept as a surprise for them. We weren’t sure what to expect of the show because we had read precious little about it, but the boys were very excited nonetheless. Not long into the show I came to the horrible, sickening realisation that the show was indeed a pantomime – in my humble opinion the lowest form of entertainment. I knew this would be a torturous 2 hours for me as I would be forced to singalong and do all the ohhs and ahhs and actions being in the front row or face ridicule from the stage.
Fortunately, the boys loved the story and characters and were happy to participate. The premise of the story line was that a young girl (Wendy Watson) saw Sydney Claus stealing her presents from under the tree on Christmas Eve. Joined by Shirley Holmes (you can imagine the poor puns) she travelled back in time to stop Sydney from ruining Christmas forever. They convinced Charles Dickens to write a Christmas Carol, ensured Prince Charles remained King of the court after the puritan Oliver Cromwell died, stopped King Henry IIIV from being poisoned by his Christmas Turkey and thwarted attempts to steal St Nicholas’ first gift and stop the birth of Jesus. While the show did share some accurate history of Christmas, it was like having teeth extracted for me. Thankfully the boys loved it, especially some of the characters.
Mark (on behalf of the wandering winrows)
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