It's that time again...

Yet again it’s soon time for the annual pantomime to be performed by the MADC at the Manoel Theatre. Having taken part in my fair share of pantos, it never fails to amaze me that it manages to sell-out in a few hours. In fact I remember one of the people who work in the Manoel’s booking office telling me last year that the theatre’s website had crashed because there were thousands of people trying to access it at the same time to book their seats.

Now I know that a lot of people take their kids to the panto because they (the kids I mean) enjoyed the fairy-tale, the music and so on. But what attracts the more adult theatre-goers to return year after year, to purchase their tickets, sometimes after queuing for hours on end? Last year we (I say we because I played the evil Queen Vindicta in last years panto) had to add on an extra performance to the 24 original ones as there was so much demand.

I have a theory. I think it is because the panto is one of the few places where one can find honest-to-goodness satire. There are still too many people on this island who have not learnt that it is ok to laugh at yourself sometimes. The panto pokes fun at people in a funny way and it’s ok to laugh. I think that is why the recent ‘Four Play’ and ‘Bla Kommixxin’ theatre productions were sold out. Net TV’s ‘Zinners’ is another good example. Not everyone ‘gets’ it, but those who do find it hilarious. Maybe finally people are realising that we don’t have to be so serious all the time.

Anyway, if you want to watch the panto, there’s some information about this year's offering on The Times, apart from other places . But hurry up because I doubt there’s many tickets left!