Bah. Humbug.

The newspaper ran the ad: “A Christmas Carol,” presented Friday 12/14 at the East Hawaii Cultural Center. Well, I’m always up for a bit of Christmas, so DH and I took ourselves out to dinner at Chang Mai, a local Thai joint, and coincidentally just across the street from EHCC. Sated with food and drink, we wandered across the street…..

…..to a completely dark building. Please note the picture on their website. A festively decorated, lit up building welcomes you to the center. In the photo, anyway.

In actuality, the building was dark, all the front doors were locked tight and there was no indication of any kind that there was any event scheduled anywhere in the vicinity. DH and I stood around for awhile, trying to determine if maybe I had misread the date…..when what to our wondering eyes should appear, a small little choir, dressed in Dickensian finery, coming from the (very dark) east side of the building, strolling up the sidewalk and then standing on the northwest corner.

We listened (and sang along) for awhile, till one of them asked if we would like to carol with them. “Actually,” I replied, “we’d kind of like to know where we are supposed to go to attend the play!!?” “Why, right around the corner here,” said one of the singers, and pointed to the west side of the building…..

….. where a small door entered into a hallway, off which a narrow flight of stairs led up to another nondescript hall. There, at a table, sat one person selling tickets, after which she pointed to a set of doors which led to the theater.

Now, after all that, I’ll say we really enjoyed the play. It was well done, with little touches I had never seen in other versions.

But really, if you want me to see your event, make me feel like you actually intend for me to find my way to it.