A Thong For Europe, Pond, News and Flis

 

I am lucky, living in Wales near the border as it’s only 29 minutes ! by car to Chester and only an hour or so from Liverpool. 

Last night I bought tickets for A Thong For Europe at The Royal Court , now I knew what I was getting into ( the title somewhat gives away a degree of dumbing down) and I was right.

Think of a Liverpudlian pantomime on steroids set against the backdrop of the City’s venture into Eurovision stardom and you may get the gist. 

Writer Jonathon Harvey loves his grotesque, matriarchal characters and Lulu ( Lindi Germain) is not a stones throw from Linda Ha Hughes ( His Kathy Burke Character in Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie) she opens the show with a bang, when she gives a hilarious and foul mouthed eulogy for his mother in church , a mother who loved Eurovision and whose ghost will haunt her is she cannot scatter her ashes on the Eurovision stage.

I think you are aware of the the level the musical is heading for from its opening moments and despite its silliness , the foul mouthed, Liverpudlian humour hits you between the eyes from the get go and it is what it is. An affectionate look at Eurovision from the eyes of a dysfunctional family of stereotypes.

Harvey throws everything at it , with a selection of iconic Eurovision entries to get the crowd clapping, a bizarre and rather amusing appearance  of a Sonia lookalike ( Sonia is a one trick UK Eurovision entry from Liverpool in 1993) and more scouse humour than could be seen at a Ken Dodd convention .

The mostly female audience , several of them almost collapsing drunk, were out for a good time , and boy did they have it, ( a fact that reminded me of my recent post of bad behaviour in theatres) 

But the whole musical was frothy, happy rubbish , so nobody cared too much .

I was home just before midnight, which wasn’t bad timing, even on the occasional school night. Liverpool has a good selection of theatres  too, which perhaps I’ve underused over the years. …time for a change me thinks.

Anyway I’ve had a nice, busy and enjoyable week off so far. 

I’m about to go and join a few more volunteers and will weed the pond borders shortly.

That will be about it for today.

And I will post some photos shortly.

I also note that blog commentator Flis has been absent for a while. I understand that one troll has taken a dislike of her comments and often says so, which is rude, nasty  and bullying behaviour. Flis has gone quiet and I want her to know that she is always welcomed here. 

End of.

Now I’ll end today on a light note. And a happy one.

Facebook has a memory app thing that shows you posts from years ago.

These photos were sent to me the other day .

They are from a sunny afternoon when I babysat the Randa girls one day and I decided to show them how to blow and decorate goose eggs

We had such a happy time messing about with those eggs on the lawn.

A precious memory now the girls are grown up now.

Little Women indeed.