With a cast of 45 and over 140 costumes, the Morley Operatic put on their 35th annual Pantomime last week. They also very graciously put me at the end of a row and kept the side bench clear so that I could stretch out during the show. (The cushioned perimeter bench is more comfy than the only slightly padded hall chairs, I discovered!)
The Panto was set in the alpine village of Schveigern which surprisingly had a Clock just like Leeds Town Hall. It featured the inevitable Dame, a Burgermeister with a wooden leg, three evil witches, a Prince with opulent costumes barely covering his (her) long legs and Erik (a Buttons type character) with disturbingly short German Shorts.
I got a bit distracted during the first half, as one of the nearby loudspeakers suspended over the balcony front started spinning round for no obvious reason and I became concerned that it might potentially come loose and lamp someone. (The sound man told me it was kids fiddling with the bracket on the balcony above).
After a 20p choc ice and a hobble to the toilets, I enquired as to how the clock repair was going. It seems Potts & co. said they would be back in two weeks time two weeks ago so being able to tell the time downtown is imminent.
The fourth photo is worth a closer look to see what traditional ditty was chosen for the community singing…
The Panto sounds great fun. It sounds as if you’ve got clock repairers with a rather Italian sense of time!
WL- it was fun.
Domani…
The panto is another thing we are lacking, except for one at Christmas. Obviously not a dying tradition there. Were you sneaking photos on your cell phone?
JMB- it is peculiar to Yorkshire that the Panto is early in the year, most other places have it in December. (Although the season is November to January so that is three months work for a lot of “C List” stars.
Sneaking photos on my Kodak V705, the one I use for all my photos, it lives in my breast pocket, I’ve had phones bigger than that. The poor quality of some of the shots is down to the stage lighting high contrast rather than a nasty phone.