Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Jack and the beanstalk

We managed to get free tickets for a panto of Jack and the Beanstalk put on by a local youth theatre group (as per usual in NZ found we knew someone involved - the stage manager is in the church youth group)
Noah was very excited until we were actually sitting waiting for it to start when he said 'Let's go home now.' I asked why and he said he was frightened of the giant's boots coming down the beanstalk - I reminded him this was at Fantasy cave at Dannevirke not in this theatre in Palmerston North. He was not quite convinced so I reminded him that at last years panto of Puff the magic dragon, he had not wanted to stay once he saw the dragon's cave but in the end had enjoyed it. Still not quite convinced, I told him that if the giant was scary he could hide his face in my scarf and he decided to stay.
The giant turned out to be a school boy in platform shoes and Noah watched him through my scarf for about 30 seconds then decided that perhaps he could cope with it after all!
I sat through the play thinking what an odd story it is - it seems to encourage stupidity (selling a cow for some beans) deceit (giants wife letting Jack in and hiding him) and stealing (good on the magic harp I say for calling out to her master when Jack who has already stolen bags of gold and a goose that lays golden eggs, tries to steal her)
Anyway Noah didn't seem to share my misgivings at the story and raced up on stage when invited at the end. Once there he was struck dumb so reverted to an earlier form of communication and signed 'cow' when the pantomime cow appeared on stage.
Two days later and Noah is still quoting 'fee, fi, fo fum' and also the catch phrase Jack used 'In for a penny, in for a pound' How am I supposed to explain what that means to a ten year old with DS?

1 comment:

Mel said...

That jolly giant at the Dannevirke cave! It scared my friend's boy so much we had to leave the room in a big hurry. He had nightmares about it afterwards. It's legendary!