Whatever happened to the Christmas Pantomime?

Whatever happened to Fable's christmas Pantomime story, which was started in early December, I hear you asking?

Did it ever get off the ground?

Heres's how it all started.

Fable invited a bunch of us over for Christmas and New year.
The whole palace had been converted into a theatre/art installation/workshop/party space.
Amongst other things we engaged in lots of therapeutic psychodrama type role playing games, and came up with a very workable cooperative healing protocol.

A month in advance Fable had thought it would be fun to have a Pantomime theme, and started of a thread in the storytelling group, to get collective plot ideas. He started off from where he was, (with an untidy kitchen, and a lot of dirty dishes)and imagined that within a week or so there would be an abundance of ideas.  (And a tidy kitchen .)

For whatever reason, (probably because he was too lazy to actively promote the idea, he only got two responses, and the process stalled.  However, the pantomime carried on for two weeks, in Sunderland, and much fun and learning was had by all.

Today, I looked at the storytelling thread for the first time in many months, and now wish that I had made the effort to join in at the time.

However, I have added a response today, and I am imagining that by next christmas, the thread will look much healthier.

Below is the story so far:





Cast involves at least three world famous Hypnotharapists...
Probably a lot more,
A stage hypnotist
(or two who work well as a double act)
some travelling circus folk with 'Issues'

It's the coldest winter in living history, and Fable is getting ready for christmas.
There is no central heating in the palace.
Fable is wearing several coats,
one on top of the other



Scene one:

In the palatial kitchen, there is the sound of dripping, and the smell of rice cooking.
Fable has again bee procrastinating about doing the washing up.
He has created many distractions to help him to avoid
This otherwise simple task

There is some sort of 'plumbed in contraption' , above the draining surface, beside the sink.
Underneath that a glass is catchting drips at a rate of 35 drips per minute.
At that rate, in an hour the glass would be 'full whelmed'.
The drips drop exactly into the centre of the glass.
Making concentic waves that ripple out to the
Glass walls , hitting all sides at exactly
The same time, so that the reflected
Waves bounce back to the centre,
Enjoy a few perfect moments.
To settle down, from their
Interference patterns.
Till the next drop
Of what?




There also a sound of dripping from behind the stage.
(Yes there is a stage in fable's kitchen complete with curtains.)
Behind the stage is the garage.
In the garage is a car with four inches of snow on its bonnet and roof.
The car has not been used in ages.
The garage roof has more (and bigger) holes than....
(well make up your own theatrepeutic inuendos).


He plucks up the courage, and starts playing "A Spoonful of Sugar" on his musical saw

There is the sound of a strange wind.
The door from the garage (behind the stage) blows open,
Blowing open the stage curtains.

Mary Poppins (Played by? .... )
Flys in, with her carpet bag and umbrella.

What happens next?

You decide.

Introduce positive:
Theatrepeutic threads
Characters
Plot lines
Humour etc.

Be prepared to work like a theatre production team.

We have to come up with the show for first night

First response:

Mary Poppins - Flys in, with her carpet bag and umbrella.
and is hit by a bus...

Second response:


The bus has been commandeered by none other than that nefarious do-good-not, that Mad Monk, Rasputin. His cackle of glee at plowing down poor Mary echoes down the snowy lane, sending chills up the spines of street urchins and potatoe vendors alike.

(Close up of Rasputin, who strangely resembles your favorite great Aunt, sans moustache.)

Rasputin struggles to regain control of his stolen vehicle, careening past gawking by-standers who are frozen in a state of shock and awe. And, as the exhaust-spewing bus disappears 'round a corner, the pedestrians emerge from their trance and one stout fellow lets out a great cry, "It's Mary!" prompting the folk, en masse, to swarm toward the stricken lady.

(Great gobs of citizens slip and slide their way to the small cloaked figure who lies, still, in the middle of the street. No one seems to notice that her carpet bag is abandoned in the gutter, its contents slipping into the slushy water streaming there.)

Third reasponse (By me today):
All attention is on Mary Poppins.

The citizens, of this humble town, have seen nothing like it before.

Mary Pops in, at the begining of what she thought was going to be a piece of cake. (and perhaps a cup of tea).

A simple bit of magic should have sorted all of Fable's problems out in to time flat.

Instead she finds herself knocked senseless by a passing bus, driven by a mad monk.

On the average day in Sunderland, nobody would have batted an eyelid, or even paused to turn their head and gawk.
Just another sorceress, being knocked down by a mad monk in a stolen bus

But this is no ordinary day.





Scene shifts back to the Kitchen:



Where moments ago, Fable had plucked up the courage to play 'Spoonful of Sugar'

Who knows what dark depths he must have been through to get to that point.

but it was indeed a turning point.

Nothing was going to get in the way now.



He took his saw playing bow, and waved it three timesWiddershins

And said out loud:

Mary Mary quite contrary,
I wish you back in the room.

Scene switches to street
where the cloaked figure is getting smaller and smaller, untill only the cloak is left lying on the street.

A hand appears from nowhere, and grasps the handle of the carpet bag, which is whisked off from the slushy gutter.

What happens next?
Go to: Storytelling group to find out and or to add your contibution.