Seeing A Pantomine With Ethan

I decided we must, really must choose a show to watch. Of the three children's show available at this time of the year, Sinbad The Pantomine Featuring The Little Mermaid seemed the most desirable. So we spent £25 on two tickets for the 21 November, 2pm. On top of that, this time, the show was not held at somewhere within walking distance like the Festival Theatre, but at Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh. So we had to take a bus there.
So, on Saturday, leaving Jethro in the good hands of Jianming, the two of us left for Musselburgh. As we had to change buses, despite the short bus journey, it still took us about 1 hour to reach there and we were nearly late. It was a rainy Saturday but it was cheery in the theatre, with so many children and parents accompanying their kids.
Barely 15 minutes into the show however, Ethan was crying to get out. It was the evil Sea Witch. He didn't like bad guys, you see. He was also appalled by this big guy impersonating as a woman, but I quickly pointed out to him that 'Saucy Nancy' was a good character. But I couldn't do much about the Sea Witch. Not in the theatre itself anyway. So, half an hour later, unable to bear his cries any more, we left the show.
Ethan wanted to go home then, or go somewhere else. But I couldn't forget the £25 + £3 for bus fare. So I tried all means to persuade him to watch it again. I tried:
1. chocolate - he ate it and still wanted to leave.
2. "There are songs and good people in the show too. Don't you want to know the story?"
3. "Let's see how they fight the evil Sea Witch. It will be a happy ending."
4. "You need a bad guy so the story is more interesting."
5. "The bad guy is really not a bad guy in reality. She's actually a nice lady pretending to be a bad guy. After the show, she will be a nice lady again."
6. "This is not a cartoon on the computer. We can only watch it this time, now. Don't want to watch, no more. No such things as next time then watch."
One or a combination of these arguments must have worked on him, for he agreed to go back to the theatre. Phew!
We didn't go back to our seats, however. Ethan absolutely refused to. There was a railing at the back, behind which sat a row of elderlies. Ethan stood behind the railing to watch. Poor me had to kneel, squat, even sit on the floor, beside him, for the sake of my £25.
Then there was the interval. As we walked down the steps again, he said now we could go home. I told him this was just the interval, the story hadn't finished yet. He looked at all the people going down the stairs as well and said, "They are going home too." I didn't know whether to laugh or sigh as I explained that they would go back to the show after the interval.
Down there, they were selling Di Rollo ice cream. I have always tried very hard to avoid giving sweet treats to Ethan just to get him to do something, but this time I must be really desperate: "I will buy you an ice cream, but you must go back up after the interval." Ethan did not say anything. After some time - we were in the queue - he said, "No, I want to go home." "Then no ice cream! Why do I buy ice cream for you if you want to go home already?" I said. Finally, he agreed to stay for the show.
While eating ice cream, we talked about the bad witch a little more. He was calmer by then and I felt quite sure he would continue with the show. He wanted to see how they would fight the witch.
We went back up, I realised there was a wide seat that was unoccupied in the same row as the elderlies. So Ethan and I shared a seat there. We didn't get to see any fighting. This was a rather mild children's panto actually. The witch decided to be good in the end, when Neptune the Sea God was resurrected. So it was a happy ending for everyone. It's good that Ethan stayed to the end and got to see the witch become 'good'. There was an action dance at the end and he was quite ready to join in (needless to say, I had to, as well). I also explained to him when all the actors and actresses came out to bow to the audience, how they were all just ordinary, good people like all of us, and were only 'pretending' in the panto.
So overall, it turned out to be a good experience, I suppose, for both of us.

Ethan after the show at the Brunton Theatre (yes, there were 2 Christmas trees):

We made a short detour to River Esk for a little while: