Tube travel mates and Stephen Fry’s Cinderella Panto

Tube dogs

Those two did accompany me this morning on my travel on the Hammersmith & City Line. Trust me they look more dangerous than they were, they were quite cute, and a bit bored and not too happy to be on the train. And they have this intensely sad look on their face. They are not very pretty either, but I love them just the way they are. (Got that Bridget?)

And I saw Stephen Fry’s Cinderella in the Old Vic today.

It would be mean to write a lot about it as you are too late to go and watch it – it closes on Sunday. But imagine a modern version of Cinderella with the 2 evil stepsisters being the most hilarious drag queens (one of them having a more than healthy similarity with Amy Winehouse), a gay marriage, a cow, talking mice, a fairy god mother, Prince Charming and generally – it was very gay. And the sets were beautiful. And it was daft. And hilarious. And bonkers. And very very very funny. This was a cracking script, Stephen Fry is such a fantastic comedy writer.

It is supposed to be a family performance, but I am sure the kids missed 90% of the jokes because the jokes are too clever and often too rude (but really funny), resulting in the kids in front of us turning their heads to find out what the heck we were laughing about. It must have been a dream to play for the actors too, they clearly had a lot of fun performing it and there is nothing better than to watch them pissing themselves with laughter on stage, not being able to perform their lines. This happened several times. It was absolutely marvelous and a joy to watch it.

Panto or Pantomime is a typical British tradition, there are even some rules (see Performance conventions) for it.

And if Stephen Fry ever writes a Pantomime again, I’ll be sure to go and watch it. You should too. Kudos to Kevin Spacey for convincing him to do it.

7 thoughts to “Tube travel mates and Stephen Fry’s Cinderella Panto”

  1. There was a dog on my carriage this morning too on the Northern line. It was rather cute, but on a very overcrowded train I’m not totally convinced it’s fair on neither the animal or our selves….

  2. I think S. Fry is a genius and mostly underrated. I recently saw him in an episode of ‘Bones” where he played a fantastic shrink.
    BTW: When I hear the word ‘pantomime’ visions of a guy trying to get out of an invisible box come to mind. It certainly is not my cup of (hibiscus) tea.

  3. @Pedro : it certainly wasn’t that kind of pantomime I can assure you. This was theatre in it’s most comical form. I think S. Fry is very well respected and appreciated here in the UK by the way.

  4. Those poor dogs look as if they can’t wait for the trip to end. Lytton would be having a heyday sniffing everyone’s shoes and bags. Training him to sit quietly would be challenging.

    Buttons: “Is she ugly? Let’s just say that the local peeping tom came along and begged her to close her curtains.” = a funny line.

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