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January 12, 2004

I'm back!

Did you miss me? Did you even know that I was gone? I spent the weekend out of Sydney (in the sticks) and only got back last night in time to delete some pointless comment spam. Thing is some of the SPAM was pretty nasty - some idiot was claiming: 'I've got your kids'. Fortunately I knew where the kids were - otherwise that could have been really scary. Oh well, another for the ban list (about 40 now) and one more article with comments turned off. I need to find some more time to finish the archive process that I started.

Friday night we say the Three Little Pigs in the garden of the Lewers Gallery (at Penrith). Each pig had a house in a different part of the garden. The first pig showed the kids his house and then, because he was supposed to be fat and lazy, he went to sleep. The kids couldn't wake him up so when the wolf turned up and started his poetic description, of why he didn't eat children, one of the kids (guess whose) piped up and said: "why doncha eat this pig over here". The second pig was into playing the guitar and making animal noises (cue wolf howl) and the third pig was female. When the wolf couldn't blow down the third house (even with the help of the kids), he was wondering (out loud) how to get into the house when a helpful pair of children (one was my son, the other my niece) started telling him to just open the door. The poor old wolf had to interrupt the flow to tell them that the door was locked. That's OK said the pair of kids - go round the back, it only has a curtain on the back door. Later when the wolf ends up in jail, all the kids went to see him. One of them (whose kid?) pulled the bars out of the window to help the wolf escape. I guess those are the risks that you run with interactive theatre and inventive kids.

It is interesting to consider whether this behaviour is "appropriate". I would tend (even if it wasn't my kids) to say that they were simply participating in the activity. Sure helping the wolf to escape is outside the script but it was non-destructive behaviour and they were certainly getting involved and enjoying the entertainment. What do you think?

Posted by Ozguru at January 12, 2004 07:01 AM

Comments

Glad to see you are raising indepentdent thinkers; wait until they end up against the PC crowd; that should be highly entertaining!

Posted by: MommaBear at January 12, 2004 07:01 AM

Heh heh heh, your kids are priceless, Jon. :-) Welcome back, BTW.

Posted by: Paul Jané at January 12, 2004 07:01 AM

As a "Big Pig" i found the behavour abhorrent!!! Mind you the kids did give us a decent feed at the end...thanks mums and dads. Loved the strawberries and grapes, but you can hold off on the dried sao and jatz next time. (Actually we love the kids getting into it, its what is all about). Thanks 4 coming!

Posted by: Hamlet at January 12, 2004 07:01 AM

My daughter is in 10th grade and she is doing a paper on "Theatre Critic". I found on GDay Mate a critic regarding "The Three Little Pigs". The critic is very funny and my daughter would like to write about it. The only thing she is missing is the days it was played, where and more info about the play. I do not now if you can provide me with that info, but she would need it today. Thanks!

Posted by: Olga Narvaez at January 12, 2004 07:01 AM

We went to the performance on the 9th (Friday night) of January. Given the location (in the article) has a link, you might want to check with the gallery for more information.

Posted by: ozguru at January 12, 2004 07:01 AM