This week me and my eldest son had a wonderful opportunity to visit the local theatre. We went to see a pantomime called Cinderella.
If you haven’t been to see a pantomime yet – it is a musical comedy. There, men are often dressed as women and young women dressed as men. This type of show originated in ancient Greece and throughout centuries made its way to Britain where it is a popular outing activity during the festive Christmas time.
My son was meant to go and watch it with his class, however, due to various circumstances, I ended up taking him to the show.
We don’t go to the theatre often, in fact, it was our first trip together. We arrived on time, with plenty of snacks and great excitement to enjoy this new experience.
As someone who is not a pre-teenage boy and as I have grown up watching the original Cinderella movie (from the 1950s) and have been fully aware of the story and how it ends, to my surprise, my son had no absolute clue about who Cinderella is and what he just got himself involved into. I felt a big failing as a parent when I realised, that he doesn’t know this famous story. Quickly and quietly, I debriefed him at the beginning of the show, that he is about to watch a story – of a young girl who had a cruel stepmother, grew up in poor conditions, then met a Prince, went to a ball, and Lost a Shoe when running a way. Eventually, her Prince found her by searching all his kingdom for a woman he fell in love with at the ball – the owner of the Lost Shoe. Then, they married and lived happily ever after.
I was not surprised to see a sarcastic grin on my son’s face and a quiet willingness to would have rather played Roblox or Minecraft instead of sitting in the theatre. Especially, considering that me and his dad are divorced and he is aware that sometimes marriages go ‘pear shaped’. Nevertheless, everyone in the family believes in love and being together with those who make us happy and who we are happy with. However, not all of us are as optimistic about marriages, at this time. Most of the boys have already voiced their wishes to never get married, wanting to live with a house full of their friends when they grow up, and to spend days selling their skills and travel the world. I am, of course, welcome to visit them wherever they are.
I didn’t quite manage to get insights about what impression the Cinderella show left on my son and whether he learned anything new. He said that he enjoyed it. That’s all I managed to squeeze out of him. However, knowing that, he did not see the original story, it will be my task as a parent to introduce this version of Cinderella to all of my boys. It will be the first movie that we will watch together, once they return back from their short Christmas break at their dads and the foreign travels.
I want them to know the classic story. The one that I watched when I was young. The one that ends with the marriage as the happy ending.
Interestingly, the pantomime covered all of the original story, except the ending.
Cinderella did reunite with her Prince and her Lost Shoe. The ending was happy. Although, they decided not to get married, for some time – until she finishes her studies and together they have travelled the world.
We watched the whole show, we both enjoyed it. We laughed at many jokes. We had some ice-cream at the break time. Ate all our snacks and happily went back home, with a plan to potentially make a return back to the theatre – for a ballet.
The ballet show that I always wanted to see in real life.
The Nutcracker.
Guess what? It is playing in the same theatre – next month!
PS: Enjoy the video! 🙂
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