Entertainment vs. Ethics

Hallo lovelies

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on at the moment and we have seen some brilliant shows and a few not so brilliant ones... We saw a show today which although entertaining in some parts really made me question the fine line between entertainment and ethics...

Part of the show involved some acrobatics which involved a little boy... if I had to hazard a guess, he is probably about 4 or 5... and although he put on a great performance and was an absolute trooper.. he was pretty much being used as a human prop...

So imagine the amphora/urn is the small boy and you pretty much have the act... The boy was being spun in circles while laying flat like a starfish, then flipped onto his back and spun.. and also flipped.. so he would start sitting on the man's feet, then fling his head back and be flipped through the man's legs in a fill turn and end up seated on the man's feet again... and again.. and again... and again... over and over and over and over... all very entertaining... but I was really concerned about the boy's brain... bashing around inside his skull! I'm no doctor or anything but I'm fairly certain that while a brain is still developing, it is very fragile and should not be subjected to that much force... I mean, after all, that's why we don't shake babies! The entire act made me really uncomfortable and then it seemed to go on and on and ON... there were a couple of times when he 'fell' off and was half caught by the man... but they just went straight on and tried the 'trick' again.. and again... for me.. it was just painful.... I was tempted to walk out of the show because it made me so uncomfortable.

I was glad to find out that I wasn't the only one. I was voicing my concern after we left the show and a lady on the street in front of us turned around and said "I agree!"....

The only other time I've felt this way was in Spain when we went to watch the bull fighting. But on that occasion I'd made a conscious decision and had kinda of mentally prepared myself to be slightly uncomfortable with what I was witnessing... We also decided to leave half way through the performance and actually witness the bull being butchered out the back of the ring, so as much as it was quite horrible to watch, it was good to know that all parts of the bull would then be used in various things. I digress...

On this occasion, I just really wasn't mentally prepared for it and it just seems so much more disturbing when a young child is concerned.

Have you ever been to a performance where you didn't really agree with what's going on?
Did you stay or did you leave?
Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?