The Roundabout, a multi-functional pop-up theatre-in-the-round, on tour with Paines Plough, has been erected in Ordsall Park for four days whilst community groups and Orsallians have had the pleasure of using it for their own shows, workshops and projects whilst three plays, in conjunction with The Lowry Theatre, have come here direct from The Edinburgh Fringe, and are having their English premieres in this small but intimate venue.
The last of the three, How To Spot An Alien is aimed at younger audiences, and is a Roald Dahl-esque look at the frightening world of aliens taking human form and abducting the young children to a distant planet for brainwashing and experimentation. Katherine Pearce is once again the strongest performer in Georgia Christou's B-Movie for children. On the brochure it advises aged five and up, but I would be tempted to push that a little higher. The language, themes and especially the sound and lighting effects used throughout were, in my opinion, not suitable at all for 5 year olds. One young girl sitting near me was frightened all the way through, but stayed, cuddled by her mother, because her older sister was enjoying it so much!
Two young children lose their mother suddenly. She doesn't die, she just simply disappears. Just as suddenly, an unknown and unheard of 'Auntie' comes along and offers to home them instead of them having to go to the orphanage. As the play progresses it becomes clear to the children that something is absolutely not right about this auntie and they resolve to escape and find their mother. They discover a spaceship in the attic, that they are living now on a distant and inhospitable planet, and that their auntie is actually the head of an evil universal organisation to rid the earth of children. Their adventure makes them disguise themselves as an alien, thwart and kill their alien 'auntie' and travel back to earth in this spaceship to be reunited with their very worried mother.
I am delighted to relate that both Charlotte O'Leary and Jack Wilkinson came very much into their own in this play. Their interacting with the children in the audience both at the beginning and at times throughout was wonderful. They had a natural rapport with the youngsters -something which Pearce seemed a little uncomfortable with. This may have been that her character was the evil one, but I absolutely adored both O'Leary's and Wilkinson's acting in this play; and despite it not really being suitable for the very young, those on the cusp of teenagerhood were loving it.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 8/9/18
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