Saturday, August 26, 2006

I, Charlie Brown

Okay, so I attended my first Mystery Dinner Theatre tonight. They're all the rage, I guess. In fact I just read something or other in some online newspaper or other to that effect — that they're popular in Canada.


It was fine in a way. I mean the theatre part of it was fine. The actors did well and were funny and stayed in character throughout the meal, even when they weren't actually onstage. They kept hold of their accents well. One was American, one was British, and two had Belgian/German accents. I love it that they could do that. I tend to be able to pick up an accent fairly well, but I can lose it easily too. My French accent will quickly devolve into Italian and from there to Irish and so on.


But I seem to possess a certain amount of Charlie Brownishness. It crops up at certain times. Tonight, for example, there was a pillar in the old restaurant where the play was performed. Of course, I was sat nearer to it than anybody else in the establishmentt. Of course, the stage area turned out to be right on the other side of that pillar. A few people near me had bad sight lines too but none as poor as mine.


If you had told me ahead of time that one seat would be unsighted, I would pretty well have guessed that it would be mine, for the Charlie Brown syndrome does seem to strike me on occasion.

17 comments:

Linda said...

So sorry to hear that. But I would think that the "management" would make a point of having every seat in the house a place where the show can be seen.

Gina said...

You should have said something, those things can be expensive and to have to sit there and not see anything!

Hubba-hubba is also like that, and mashes his accents all up together so that he usually sounds like an Irish-German-Russian. When he is trying to sound British.

Christi said...

I've wanted to go to one of those things for a long time. It would be my luck not to be able to see it, either, though!

PBS said...

That sounds like fun, except for the bad seat. You'd think they would leave space (and no seats) around a pillar so everyone could see.

Dale said...

Very frustrating, AC, to pay good money for an obstructed view. I'll bet you said "ARRRRGH!"

Sarah Elaine said...

So sorry to hear that you didn't have a good view.

I know what you mean about Charlie Brown... I feel like him too, some days... Then there's other days when my Inner Peppermint Patti runs amuck... Oh dear...

methatiam said...

You know who ALWAYS gets the best seats in the house? The actors. See if you can get in on one, you’ll have a blast!

Valerie - Still Riding Forward said...

LOL Anvil, I would have had the chair behind YOU!

See me later for details...LOL!

mreddie said...

The play sounded like a hoot - except for the Charlie Brown seat. ec

Anonymous said...

I am surprised they were not able to improve the seating arrangement for you. But, your refering to it as a Charlie Brownishness had me smile.

Debra said...

Oh Anvilcloud... you crack me up! :) What a funny way to describe it--all the Charlie Brown references were delightful. And I agree with those who said someone should have had the foresight to block-off the space where your chair was. Hmmm... I'm big on the 'birth order thing' and well, there must not have been any 'first born' folks doing the setting-up. We first-borns pay attention to detail and would have noticed something like that right away! :) Oh well... it all made for a very cute blog story--thanks for that! Blessings, Debra

Bonita said...

I had a friend once who solved problems like that by inventing his own unique periscopes, side-scopes and whatnot. He was determined to not miss a thing. Last I heard, he had his own telescope on my sister's property, so he wouldn't miss out on anything, way out there.

squire said...

We have a "dinner theatre" here and we say we are going but so far we haven't.

squire said...

It is one of my all time favorite movies. Mustic from my time. Great, great movie.

Tammy said...

I think a lot of us can relate to good ole Charlie Brown sometimes.
I'm sorry you didn't get a good seat!

I think these mystery dinners were all the rage here in the late 80's...not that we're advanced or anything! But I just remember hearing about them constantly then and always thought it would have been neat to go. Guess I have to go to Canada now! They've moved on up! :)

Turtle Guy said...

I've done dinner theatre a number of times. The most recent was a spoof on the sitcom "Cheers", Canadianized to "Beers". Same characters, different names, with a frightfully "Canadian" slant to everything... Eh?

If you find yourself in the Calgary area, check out the Dean House. I have been only for High Tea, but I hear the dinner theatre they do is amazing.

wthenrest said...

I always get the chair that gets bumped by everyone needing to pass. I am very sensitive to being banged about, of course. I guess I have a bit of C Brown in me too...