A real departure from what one normally expects to find at Manchester's HOME, as they open their doors to the area's youngest citizens in a show designed for pre-school audiences (2 - 4 year olds), Catherine Wheels, a Scottish company have brought their delightful and intelligent show, 'White', they open up HOME to a whole new and hopefully continuing audience, and, if pantomime is not your thing, then this 35 minute cleverly conceived world of white might well be.
Cotton (Callum Douglas) and Wrinkle (Sean Hay) are custodians of a sanctuary of white. They live in a white teepee, and their work, in this white island, is to collect the eggs, put them into their respective houses and to nurture them. It's a life and a job which gives them both satisfaction and routine. If any colour is found, it is frowned upon and immediately consigned to the rubbish bin (which is of course, white).
All is going well and the next batch of newly hatched eggs arrives from unseen birds and a little bit of magic, and all is well, that is until a late egg arrival comes , and it is pure red! A nice little message in the subtext here is teaching the children that the eggs contain life. They are the baby birds. Both men listen to the egg and indeed hear life inside it - however because it is red, it must go in the bin.
That night one of them has a conscience and rescues the egg from the bin and places it in an empty birdhouse. The entrance of a red egg into this world of white has an astounding effect on the rest of the eggs and the world itself, as little by little colour is introduced and both men finally have to admit that they love colours themselves too.
There were two minor points in this production which didn't really work for me. First was that it took a very long time for the premise and story to be made clear. Although the youngsters were quiet, they were not fully engaged, and so if the exposition were to be shortened a little without losing the story, a little more could have been made of the introduction of colour, and perhaps have added just a touch of humour too. Secondly; I simply didn't understand why in a world of white, silver was so readily acceptable and omnipresent (even before the mirror ball) and not looked upon as a foreign colour.
The ending was a delightful surprise for the youngsters and the two actors coming in amongst them and chatting to them after the show was also a lovely touch. I should also mention the lighting, 'magic', and effects. All these were very clever and well thought out, and you could see the children's wonderment at it all. I loved the design (Shona Reppe), I just needed it to be completely white for the story to work (on adult terms!)
A lovely child friendly, age appropriate, production which is a most welcome addition to the HOME arsenal this festive season.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14/12/18
photo credit - Douglas McBride
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