Menzigen, Kanton Zug, has a population of 4289, and it surged by 8% for the afternoon, as the matinée audience for the English Theatre Group’s version (very good indeed) of the trad panto, Aladdin, took their seats.
Most of us in the audience were the usual flotsam and jetsam of ex-pat career boosters, tax exiles, hedgies (the ‘adults’), and our delightfully behaved offspring, the majority of whom knew when to shout and shout loudly they did.
There was a minority of curious Swiss who distinguished themselves by dressing as if it were the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, exhibiting the air of a team of anthropologists visiting a pocket of darkest Africa to make a study of tribal life there. The Swiss children were impeccably behaved when they weren’t confused by the mayhem, but only began to join in the shouting towards the end.
You can take the pantomime out of England but you cannot take England out of the panto. Patrons queued for 20 minutes during the 20 minute interval to be served a cuppa and a bun, but the buns ran out.
I loved it.
Trevor E Brown's Blog 