Little Angel Theatre presented their 45 minute long play for the pre-school (2 - 5) age bracket this afternoon in the Exchange's Studio Theatre.
Two men (David Burchhardt and Nicholas Anscombe) - dressed in black - (the Kabuki Theatre tradition of being 'invisible') - entered the stage and immediately made themselves visible by smiling and interacting with the audience. This very soon changed though as they then became two very skilful and diligent puppeteers, and their puppets' voices too, for the rest of the show.
A well designed set which placed a bedroom centre stage with a garden to the front and door and window behind, all raised so that the performers could crouch behind blending in as much as possible. A sensible lighting design and well chosen music also helped to create the moods throughout.
A baby boy is trying to sleep, his father [think Lionel Jeffries in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang] is a magician and the baby finds his box of tricks. This leads the baby, after he has magic-wanded his father to sleep in the dirty linen basket, on an adventure with a large rabbit which comes out of the box too. Of course everything goes wrong, but magician father wakes up and manages to put everything back in the right order so that they both can fall asleep in each others' arms.
Written, directed and designed by Michael Fowkes, everything is extremely well placed and timed, and I loved the voices used for baby and father. My only slight concern, after watching the reaction of the youngsters on the mats at the front, was that the sequence with the barking dog went on too long and the barking was perhaps too loud and protracted.
Otherwise, this was a delightful puppet play which worked very well, even some of the grown-ups joining in with vocal approbation to some of the funnier moments. Two very skilled performers brought a magical tale to life to the joy of all.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14/12/18
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