Mediæval Times!

Yes, we succumbed. Well, not exactly. This was our last weekend with Andrea (my stepgranddaughter) before her 10th birthday, April 30. What to do?

I have a theory that, particularly in non-custodial relationships, it’s really important to show the child that she’s important. So I didn’t want yet another weekend where we (her father, who can be rather feckless, & her grandmother & I) sat around doing the Marty thing, you know: “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” I brainstormed with Mona & Liz (my daughter, who has no difficulty channelling her inner 10-year-old), and came up with Mediæval Times, which has been running its local show for 13 years in what used to be called the Arts, Crafts, & Hobbies Building in Exhibition Park. (That timespan shocked me; we went there the summer it opened, and it sure doesn’t feel like 13 years!)

It was kind of expensive for four Adult Royalty and one Child Royalt (sic)—368 CAD—so I was kind of worried about how Andrea would enjoy it.

Why was I? It was bang on, and if you have a 10-year-old who can get into the spirit of it—or you have an inner 10-year-old!—go for it.

Much of it was cheesy. Obviously some of it was an inside joke among the cast (Lord William of Corner Brook? I smell a Newfoundlander). The fights and falls were obviously choreographed—but Andrea gave it rapt attention, and when cheering was called for put her all into it.

We were also lucky that we were in the Green Knight’s section, he being the treacherous guy. But however treacherous he was, he gave Andie his ribbon, and she was his “Queen of Love & Beauty”; she was incandescent.

Aside from the splitting headache from sitting next to Andrea, and the late night, it was worth it.