Spectacle! I like spectacle!
I like decapitations and eviscerations
I like insides turned inside out!

Some people find it artistic
When Hamlet gets gloomy and glum
My tastes run to the sadistic
So a flaming hot poker shot right up his bum!

Go see The Rose And The Ring at the Hen and Chickens. Go see it now! Composer Michael Jeffrey and lyricist Peter Morris have come up with an utterly charming take on a William Makepeace Thackeray novella.

To paraphrase The Princess Bride, it's a great tale of romance, fencing, fighting, humor, torture, revenge, chases, escapes, true love and miracles. It is a great tale of a two nations called Paflagonia and Creamtartery, a girl named Rosalba, a boy named Giglio and true love.

The songs are delightful, with brilliantly witty rhymes. Sorta Cole Porter, or Gilbert and Sullivan. I kept being reminded of Stephin Merritt. Part of the show's charm lies in its smallness - the theatre seats 50 people - so you are engaged in it, within the drama. Oh, it's simply delightful.