Following our depressing start to the year, today Hackney showed just why I love it. The diverse community, the sense of local tradition and the ability to laugh at the absurdities of local life.
This afternoon, I went with Rosalie to The Hackney Empire to enjoy a truly wonderful spectacle, The Panto (oh no I didn't, etc.). This year it is Jack and The Beanstalk (oh no it wasn't. Ok, I'll stop now), and it crackled with humour, villainy, slapstick, high camp and song and dance routines.
Clive Rowe is magnificent as the dame, while Jack and his friends all get to sing their own number. There is a cow, a snowman, a giant, two green bean villains, several fairies and a chicken. With plenty of jokes to entertain the grown-ups and some great ad-libbing, it would be easy to forget that the people who enjoy the show most are the children.
The theatre is a beautiful late-Victorian venue, all gilt and red velvet, perfect for this most strange theatrical tradition, and access is pretty good too (or wheelchair users there are tables with seats at the back of the stalls).
To understand the genre, it helps to go with children and hear them shouting, singing, booing and cheering. But when pantomime is done well, this peculiarly British tradition becomes genuine entertainment for the whole family.
Thank you Hackney, for reminding me that there are also good reasons to be in this part of the world.
This afternoon, I went with Rosalie to The Hackney Empire to enjoy a truly wonderful spectacle, The Panto (oh no I didn't, etc.). This year it is Jack and The Beanstalk (oh no it wasn't. Ok, I'll stop now), and it crackled with humour, villainy, slapstick, high camp and song and dance routines.
Clive Rowe is magnificent as the dame, while Jack and his friends all get to sing their own number. There is a cow, a snowman, a giant, two green bean villains, several fairies and a chicken. With plenty of jokes to entertain the grown-ups and some great ad-libbing, it would be easy to forget that the people who enjoy the show most are the children.
The theatre is a beautiful late-Victorian venue, all gilt and red velvet, perfect for this most strange theatrical tradition, and access is pretty good too (or wheelchair users there are tables with seats at the back of the stalls).
To understand the genre, it helps to go with children and hear them shouting, singing, booing and cheering. But when pantomime is done well, this peculiarly British tradition becomes genuine entertainment for the whole family.
Thank you Hackney, for reminding me that there are also good reasons to be in this part of the world.
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