The story opened with Malcolm (Adam Colborne) celebrating his birthday surrounded by his mum (Grace Alexander-Scott) and his dad, (William Force), plus his extended family. He was really excited about opening his birthday present as he wanted a laptop. Unfortunately, his family have bought him an unwanted pet, which he took an instant dislike to. The thing about Malcolm, he totally detests animals, which inevitably was a massive problem for his family as they absolutely adore any animal, regardless of what it is. The family home was full of various animals, which Malcolm found uncomfortable being around and had no interaction with them either.
After the celebration of his birthday, Malcolm went on a school trip to the local farm. On his arrival there, he is hypnotised by a goat, and was transformed into an animal. He was then subsequently transformed into an array of various animals, where he encountered them and lived their way of life for a few moments, before transforming into another animal. There was some great story-telling told amongst all the funny, friendly and eccentric characters
Animalcolm is primarily a musical, aimed toward young children. All the songs were good, particularly 'Back To Being Me', which was my favourite. Throughout the songs showcased Malcolm’s emotions and desperation to go back to how he was. These songs provided some great story-telling and explained the story in a way which children would essentially understand more. The songs were sung really well by all the cast involved in the play. The sound quality was amazing as I could hear them all, even from a distance away from the stage.
The set was very simple, but practical and colourful, which added to the chikdren’s imagination. There were props and costumes stored amongst the set, which made it easier for the characters to change quickly. The set was adapted to several scenes in the play, which made it accessible to avoid any long pauses. The stage was very well lit throughout the play as all the action was observed instantly.
The costumes were very good as an audience could instantly identify which character was playing which animal. The choreography was very well done, with all the pupperty moments of the animal characters and the dance moves to the songs performed and sung effortlessly on the stage. There was an excellent use of the screen at the back of the stage, which illustrated various outdoor scenes, which added to the imagination of the various locations of the scenes in the play.
The cast played all the roles extremely well, their performance of all the various animals was spell-binding and a pleasure to watch. Their reactions and the noises of all the animals was very genuine and well researched. Special mention to Adam Colborne, who was very good throughout his performance, as he had such a massive amount of dialogue to learn and very many scenes to master, which he did amazingly.
This was a vibrant, highly energising and hilariously funny musical from the award-winning Story Pocket Theatre. Animalcolm combined some great puppetry theatre and did a fantastic job bringing David Baddiel’s magical and brilliantly comic story book to the stage. This high quality adaption was so skilfully performed by a incredibly talented bunch of great actors/actresses and was so well written with a few funny one-liners and comical stories told. The story-telling was really well delivered to the audience, particularly the young ones, through so many adorable, friendly and funny characters.
I would highly recommend this show, particularly for families with young children as the show was extremely entertaining. Sometimes, a difficult thing to keep children engaged in the audience, but Animalcolm did such a wonderful, effortless job doing it. They were instantly entertainedwith all the songs, which were catchy and kept them amused throughout the play.
Reviewer - Mark Cooper
on - 1/3/19
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