Punching Out

While we were visiting Knaresborough, the lady in the tourist office told us about the arts festival currently going on. That day featured a traditional Punch and Judy show in the town's market square, just a short walk away from the tourist office. The first performance was at 11:30, about 15 minutes away. So Jacob, Lucy, and I headed over for the show. Who knew that Jacob would want to leave during the show?

What was it that drove him off? It wasn't the wacky venue. He enjoyed the tall stage with the small puppets popping up and down, left and right. The music was pretty good too, mostly 1920's sounding rag time tunes.

Complete stage, allowing the performer to stand up. Must be nice!

The puppet's on the far right, fleeing the "show starts" sign, I guess

The puppets are a little weird looking, if you ask me. But this didn't seem to bother Jacob either.  When these two bobbies showed up in the show, they did not start hitting each other, they just danced to a silly song. Jacob was okay with this too.

They did not do a Gilbert and Sullivan Routine, alas!

The crowd did get pretty big. I was sitting right next to Jacob and he didn't seem fazed by the numbers of other kids and adults hanging around. I felt a few drops of rain, which is usually a deal breaker for Jacob, but he didn't notice or was too distracted by the entertainment to care.

Then this crazy lady showed up:

The Judy of the show?

She was okay until she had a little baby puppet (at least, I think it was supposed to be a baby) that kept showing up behind her. She asked the crowd to help her find the baby. The crowd of kids would shout whenever the baby popped up. They got very loud and Jacob got very upset. He didn't want to stay. I was curious to see more but didn't want to make him stay. We headed off to the car.

It was fortuitous that we left when we did. About a minute after we got back into the car, the rain started in earnest. We were saved from a dousing. Maybe someday we'll get to see another Punch and Judy show with a less rambunctious crowd. I think the performances are pretty popular at Christmastime.