Thursday 11 October 2018

REVIEW: Fup: A Modern Fable - The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.



Award winning, Cornish-based Kneehigh Theatre Company, presenting a national tour is something I didn’t want to miss. The family friendly theatre group have been creating ambitious productions since the early 1980s and have gained a fantastic reputation in the theatre world. ‘Fup’ was marketed as being suitable for adults, teenagers and adventurous children over the age of 10’ and I think this was the greatest mistake of this production. Looking around the theatre, there was only a smattering of children but there were high school groups aplenty, possibly because Kneehigh’s Hansel and Gretel has made it onto GCSE Drama syllabuses. ‘Fup’ wasn’t reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel, nor had the sophistication of ‘The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk’ which I watched earlier this year. So what was missing?

The original novel by American writer Jim Dodge, was the heart-warming story of a little boy orphaned, and his relationship with his estranged grandfather and a duck named Fup, which helps to build bridges and hold their fragile relationship together. The story itself didn’t really lend itself to much theatricality, however, the direction and design turned out to be the saving grace and became the real star of the whole production. Simon Harvey’s direction was lovely. He did a lot with very little. 

A lively band remained onstage throughout and created a brilliant atmosphere before and during the performance. The actors themselves also mingled amongst the auditorium, setting up the storyline of the opening scene, accompanied by blue-grass versions of nineties hits, encouraging the audience to clap and cheer along. The band helped to create the mood throughout the evening from the staccato rhythms of the tense scenes to the comic reaction of Granddad supping on his home-brews. The whole piece felt sewn together by their fantastic use of music.

Rozanna Vize’s set design was a real visual treat. When you entered the auditorium, the stage was open and dominated by a large barn with a huge central window. During the production, the window would open to create an upper stage. This was fantastic during the flashback scenes and to create a sense of ‘other worldliness’. The use of the white goods around the stage (fridge and washing machine) were an underlying theme in the story, but were not only imaginative as a visual but also brilliantly utilised as a moving vehicle at one point of the play. It was at moments like those when Kneehigh’s wickedly childish sense of humour was at its finest.

The play featured puppets within the story and these were beautifully crafted and designed by Lyndie Wright and team, under the direction of Sarah Wright. Fup, the duck was puppeteered by Rachel Leonard and she was magnificent. The movement, timing and characterisation of the duck was so believable and the reason there was so much heart in the story. The play also featured a younger version of the main character Tiny, as a small child. This puppet was completely absorbing and the audience was drawn into the stunning rapport between the child and his mother, played by Jenny Beare. However, this was unfortunately also the reason I felt this production had misfired at a teenage audience. The childish sentimentality of the puppetry, and the tragedy of the story was something which the teenagers in this audience clearly couldn’t cope with and they became quite noisy, especially at the most moving of moments. I wasn’t sure whether this audience were particularly badly behaved or whether the story didn’t really need to be told in 2 hours and they were just bored.

My parting note is to the theatres of Manchester and Liverpool.  I know that Kneehigh knows where Manchester is, because I saw them perform at HOME just this year. ‘Fup’ has chosen to limit its North West tour to just the Liverpool Everyman theatre, the same theatre which will host some of the biggest names on tour within two weeks of one another; from Birmingam Rep’s premiere of The Lovely Bones, to the brand new Frantic Assembly national tour. Why aren’t they coming to Manchester? I really feel Manchester audiences have missed out this time.  Maybe they’ll come back and visit Manchester over half term when families can go to watch it, rather than noisy teenagers?  I hope so.

Reviewer - Johanna Hassouna-Smith
on - 10/10/18

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