Category Archives: Theatre

Mad Sunday

09 Sunday Sep 2012

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We left here around 10am to get to the South Bank, and got home just after 6pm – so that’s a full day out. We found out on Wednesday there was a Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly and Friends at the BFI today – I went to get tickets only to find there were single seats left – but fortunately we managed to get in.

There was a workshop beforehand where you could paint, colour, draw, create – pretty much anything and everything – very very appealing to a newly crowned three year old too.

We sat next to a nice chap who works for the company who make Peppa Pig who chatted about making episodes – we found out loads – before Neville Astley, Mark Baker and Phil Davies came on stage to tell us more about Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly.

AND!

We got to see four brand new episodes – three Peppa and one Ben & Holly which wont be on tv until around December time. They were all excellent too.

I’ll write it up properly on Mum Friendly when I have some energy (such as how many minutes of Peppa Pig or Ben and Holly they do in an average day and what the stories are occasionally based on), but it was an excellent day. H and Shaun made a plasticine stop-start animation (well they did the characters, a man who knows what he’s doing did the stop-start stuff). There was a competition to draw and colour in a picture of Peppa and H won! I drew the Peppa and she coloured it in, she did really well – getting a George toy, DVD, book and magazine – she was really pleased and proud to have won something.

We bumped into Leah and her girl S who is eight months older than H. The two got on really well, having last met when they were around six months and 14 months old – another new friendship! We wandered around the South Bank and found plenty to do but no book maze – they’d taken it down, sigh… but we got our photo taken in a passport booth for 20p so we could have a passport for Antarctica which I will read more about as it’s art you see. Photo to follow…

Now I must rest. Tomorrow it’s work again.

Ha.

31 Friday Aug 2012

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It’s an odd feeling being talked about by your workmates, and you appear and they shut up and do that kind of verbal backpedalling thing that you’d do when you didn’t realise the person being talked about was about to come into the room.

All we did was create a little Musicals themed Spotify Playlist. It didn’t go down too well, though did stay on for an hour on the stereo until it was switched off abruptly. I quite like our little playlist, though I quite like musicals too (which helps). I’d share the playlist on here, but my work internet is ridiculous, Spotify is stupid and I am locked into an account which is currently based in the United States, so I can’t access it from home.

On the plus side, having a US based account means I can play all the Yo Gabba Gabba songs – but only at work. Then again I never listen to my music at work, so I’m never going to actually do that… you can’t win really.

Peppa Pig Live in Croydon

31 Saturday Mar 2012

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H finally got to the theatre this afternoon. Peppa Pig’s Treasure Hunt finally made it to Croydon.

We got seated, the obligatory photo taken of three toddlers (and two of us three mums) plus their new lighted windmills…

I must be hormonal as I swear I almost burst into tears through cuteness at one point – the lights went down, the curtains went up and Danny Dog, Pedro Pony and Zoe Zebra played hide and seek while H stared open mouthed at this experience unfolding in front of her like it was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. (why have I left it this long to take her to the theatre?!)

The first half was a lot longer than the second (as it always seems to be), and she only really warmed up by the second half (maybe it was the sugar in the ice cream), but oh, she loved it. George Pig cries real tears (“he cried on my tights” she said) and we all got to sing the Bing Bong Song, could you really want any more than that? Daisy the narrator type person who keeps the story going looked a bit bored though (until the very end), but Peppa’s voice lady was excellent.

There were plenty of songs with parts you could join in with which helped keep H focused – she was joining in with the clapping and waving at the characters by the end. There’s a fabulous underwater section with fluorescent fish and sea creatures which would have been even better had I not had two adults sat in front of me blocking some of the stage for H – it wasn’t the end of the world, it was just mildly annoying. Some props blocked the map too which again, a minor annoyance, but not the end of the world.

Then there’s the money. Good job Shaun has just been paid… The real cash is spent on the merch stand though, oh my. A windmill thingummy that lights up – £7. How about a programme? £5. Oh, and a balloon at the end of course – £4…. the half time ice cream was £2.50 a tub too – but I’m not complaining, it’s just funny how it mounts up – plus we went to Wagamama afterwards for some food (there were lots of gold balloons there).

Two cheeky toddlers then gave the 154 bus a lovely rendition of the Bob The Builder theme (which was very funny, I have to say), before saying goodbye and making it home for bathtime.

‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ is on in Croydon next… and only £10… very very tempting.

Going Live…

07 Friday Oct 2011

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We all got so excited yesterday – well, we being me and a few of my mum friends… there’s a Peppa Pig live show, and they’re coming to Croydon next year. There were front row seats available – and we’re just trying to get numbers together now… and oh.. the thought of H and her friends seeing Peppa on stage… and they’ll either explode with happiness and scream, or they’ll look on terrified “b-b-b-ut Peppa is on the tv…” I think it’s us parents who are the most excited. What can you expect when you take a group of two and a half year olds to something they’ve all become obsessed with as time has progressed?

It’s too good an opportunity to miss, tickets will be bought, and we’ve safety in numbers. What could possibly go wrong? (apart from a strategically placed merch stand of course, and a demanding toddler wanting a ‘dine-saw’ or something)

I really wanted to take H to see The Wiggles live, as she really likes them, but we never got around to it, although it would be age-appropriate – so that might happen in the future too…. plus we had a session sitting watching seven episodes of The Bopps again yesterday (I love shows which are 5 minutes long) which was good for a dance around the living room at the end (with lots of “mummy pick me up” requests politely declined thanks to the back troubles) and I bet they’ll be coming soon too as they seem pretty active live.

It’s all good… but it does make me think – I went to my first gig back in 1983 (Duran Duran, Leeds Queens Hall, fact fans, on the Seven and the Ragged Tiger Tour) when I was thirteen – and here I am taking my little one to experience her first (potential) musical moments at the grand age of two and a half… my earliest memory has to be when I was three or four (I stuck some paper in the grid of the fire and scorched the front room carpet- my punishment? No tomato soup – I was mortified, and the saddest little girl in the world, ever because of it) – H isn’t going to remember a thing about this in later life. Is it all too soon?

But then what if Peppa Pig stops? What if The Wiggles split or stop touring? What if The Bopps stop? What then? Sure, things replace them… but is this all for me really?

Then again, I remember from an early age going to see things at York Theatre Royal (The Sooty Show springs to mind, I think I’ve still got my ‘I Love Sooty’ badge somewhere). Which brings on my biggest conundrum of all. Almost every year, without fail, I go to the pantomime at York Theatre Royal… Berwick Kaler has been writing and starring in it for well over thirty years, and really truly, Alfred Hickling got this so right (he’s from York, so he understands) – particularly the line “But we started taking a nephew and niece when they were wide-eyed tots, and they have since developed into fine, handsome teenagers” – oh, and I have a Wagon Wheel – carefully kept and uneaten of course – it’s like a gold medal of panto (and probably about 8 years old now). Oh what to do… This year it’s ‘The York Family Robinson‘. Sighh….