Betty, my four year old and I spent all of Sunday morning rehearsing a puppet show with our new, rather special wooden theatre. Uncle Bob was coming for lunch, and we hadn't seen him for a whole year, so what better than to put on a little show for him after lunch, while he sat back and drank his cup of mint tea.
This theatre is gorgeous, with its 'Show Time' swirly writing across the front, and its fun and colourful detailed design. It has a pair of red velvet curtains which can be pulled across and tied at the sides. And it comes with five fabulous finger puppets, including a king, queen and princess, all elaborately dressed, and a wooden stand for them to perch on when not performing.
Betty decided she wanted to perform the story of Chicken Licken - she knows the story off by heart, word for word, and wasn't put off by the fact that none of her finger puppets (of which she has many) resembled the feathery characters in the story, but she did have the king, and he featured a lot during her show.
So at 4pm, it was show time, and Betty gave me the nod, which meant I had to blow into a toy trumpet while she opened the curtains. She then played out a fantastic show, of rabbits performing as chickens, reindeers performing as turkeys, and turtles performing as ducks, and the lovely king popping up at every 'we are off to tell the king the sky is falling down' line. And each time the king appeared, Betty gave me the nod, which meant I had to blow into the trumpet dramatically.
Foxy Loxy (in the disguise of a mouse) appeared at the end and ate the rest of the puppets, the curtains closed, I blew into the trumpet some more, and Betty got a big round of applause from Uncle Bob. Betty then handed out jelly beans to her audience and thanked them all for coming.
She casually mentioned that her next performance will be called 'Freddie and the Fairy' - this product is going to give us hours of entertainment.
