You Shall go to the Ball.....

In 1952 the Fraserburgh Photographic Society staged a pantomime, "Humpty Dumpty", to raise funds for equipment. The pantomime was so successful that the following year some of the members came together and formed the Fraserburgh Junior Arts Society. The object of the society being to encourage young persons in the Arts.

For nearly 60 years FJAS has been delighting audiences with pantomimes, plays, musicals and variety theatre, and has also been involved in all the major community events in Fraserburgh. Back in 1957 our society organised the formation of the Swimming Pool Fund after several fatalities at the beach, the project was subsequently adopted by Aberdeenshire Council resulting in Fraserburgh swimming pool's completion in 1969.  

Every year we produce a pantomime, a summer show, and run workshops for youngsters from primary 1 upwards, sometimes there is an extra production slotted in also. 
From the FJAS website.

2009 - Dick Whittington and his Cat (that is one scary cat - all you cat lovers,  do not look now.)

Last night was the 'works outing' for the Lighthouse Museum.  

We had a very exotic Staff Christmas Meal, take away Chinese or Fish and Chips in the cafe !  Accompanied by some fizzy red stuff and crackers.  

Then it was on to Dalrymple Hall for

The annual Pantomime!  Oh yes it was!

Sorry, not allowed to take photographs during the performance. 

But it was truly amazing, superb, dancing and singing way better than most of the X Factor rubbish.  

Buttons is the Lighthouse Museum's trainee chef, must remember NOT to tell him how good he was (Oh no he wasnt) otherwise he will be in the queue for the X Factor rather than delighting visitors to the Lighthouse Cafe with his latest twist on mince and tatties (with added chilli being the latest.)

Ditto our Cafe Assistant at the weekend who was Cinderella.  I did wonder why she had been flouncing about the last few weekends, flounce, very descriptive word dont you think?  Bounce with frills on!  Flinging her arms around its a wonder she didnt throw the teapot she was serving.  

Now I know she was rehearsing her role.

This pantomime started Monday evening, two performances, and continued throughout the week with two performances every day, and finishes today, Saturday, with two performances.  Tickets are sold out within hours of them going on sale.  This is 300 tickets each show.  Fraserburgh has a population of 10,000.  Nae bad going.  

Some years back, ok many years back we took our kids to a similar set up of a pantomime in the Midlands, where we then lived.  This morphed into totally not pantomime anymore but a parody of what was on the tele.  

However what we saw last night was a proper pantomime, traditional, and the bangs and flashes and crashes of light!  

Apparently it took three performances before they managed to sort it so the fire alarms didnt go off and the show was not invaded by firemen wielding water hoses. 

 As it was I was seriously considering digging to the depths of my bag for the inhaler which I havent had to use for many months.

Fortunately the interval came after the biggest bang and quite a few of us left the auditorium blue skinned and gasping, trying to find the exit door through a pall of green smoke was a challenge though.

Today I find from Facebook I should have been listening to the traditional panto phrase, "Look behind you."

In the row behind us was a real life celebrity.  Who I had to google as I had never heard of him.

We came home after 11p.m.   I really felt like Cinderella, I am normally tucked up in bed by that time!  So I had to rush into jimjams, cleanse face, before I turned into a pumpkin or had to clean out the ashes or , lets be honest, froze to death as the heating had gone off and the stove gone out.