An Afternoon with Anna and Elsa
I considered titling this post “An Afternoon with Anna, Elsa, and a Thousand Screaming Children”, but it seemed a little long. Accurate, but long.
My other half booked tickets for the half term holiday to take the children to see a special “Singalong” version of Frozen at the local theatre. She then – as seems to be the habit with school staff everywhere – fell violently ill as soon as school finished for the Easter break, and has been in bed for much of the last week. I had mentioned a couple of days ago that if push came to shove, I could probably take the girls if she still wasn't well enough, but we dismissed it, because she was starting to get better. I got an email at work this morning – “Can you ask?”.
And so it was that I found myself this morning at the end of a project management meeting asking to immediately take the afternoon off. When I explained the circumstances – and where I would be spending the remains of the day – the girls in the office broke into huge smiles.
A few hours later I found myself in the middle of the kind of scenes I can only imagine happen at places like Comic-Con. Several hundred children and adults dressed as Princess Anna, Queen Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf the snowman, and even Sven the reindeer. After running around the theatre to find “goody bags” for the children (containing a balloon/troll, clackers, a snowflake, a crown, and various other bits and bobs), the lights went down, and the show started.
We thought we were going to be watching the movie, with some kind of compare – right up until Anna and Elsa walked onto the stage – very good versions of them too – good enough that our youngest totally believed. I spent much of the time they were on-stage watching her instead of the show (and cursed that my phone battery was flat – otherwise I would have wonderful photos). I did wonder if the girl playing Elsa was hired in from Disney – she was West End quality, and sounded pretty much identical to Kristen Bell.
Towards the end of the show it all got a bit too much for our middle girl, and she spent much of the time snuggled up against me, lifting her head to boo the baddies, or to cheer during the finale. Miss 14 tried very hard throughout to look mildly interested, and Miss 9 was pretty much in her element – shouting the loudest, dancing the most energetically, and singing with utter conviction. During the interval the on-stage Anna and Elsa turned the lights on the audience to take a look at the children that had dressed up, and of course Miss 9 got called out by both of the princesses on the stage – I have never seen her look so proud, or her smile so big.
Here's where the whole story takes an unexpected turn. The show was wonderful. The cast were wonderful. The audience around us were slobs. When the lights came up at the end, and we stood to leave the theatre, a scene of devastation surrounded us – popcorn tipped everywhere, and walked into carpets. Drinks tipped over, and soaking into seats and carpets. Cups crushed and thrown under seats. Candybar wrappers thrown everywhere. I couldn't believe what we were seeing – neither could the children. I glanced back at the area we had been sitting to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything, and the difference was remarkable – you wouldn't have known we had been there at all. I'm still at a loss for words.
To lift Miss 11's spirits at the end of the show, we made straight for McDonalds – which was surprisingly empty because hassled parents were grabbing food for the same children that had obviously just thrown theirs all over the theatre, and heading home immediately. We sat in the middle of the restaurant with our happy meals, and re-lived our favourite moments from the show. Miss 9 danced around like a lunatic, and Miss 14 pretended she didn't know us.
I was dreading this afternoon, and it turned out to be wonderful – not because it was Frozen, but because I love spending time with my children – and after the scenes of devestation in the theatre, pretty vindicated that we're bringing our kids up right.