Doing the editor a huge favour (he was supposed to have come this afternoon but is streaming with a seasonal cold!) I came along to HOME's Theatre 2 space with my 7 year old son to catch Little Angel Theatre's production of The Slightly Annoying Elephant; a stage adaptation of a David Walliams animated book.
The production is advertised for children 3 - 8, and so Daniel (my son), I thought, would quite like to get up close and personal with a moody elephant whose manners and behaviour are disrespectful, slouching, bossy, and basically behaving as if he owns the place. This might be something he could 'relate' to and enjoy, but also understand that such behaviour is not partciularly acceptable or welcome at home from him... this could be a good 'lesson' for him..... [I'm not saying my son is a monster, far from it, but I think we have all experienced moody children going through certain phases of their growing up, and can relate to this].
However, how wrong was I?! When the elephant finally did arrive.... much anticipation in the audience and a good build-up from Sam (Heidi Goldsmith)..... all my son could say was... "that's ridiculous! That's a person dressed up as an elephant!" There's no fooling young Daniel it seemed, and as this 50 minute play progressed, he got more and more annoyed that the 'elephant' became more and more human... riding a bicycle, losing body parts (ears), and even speaking like a human! No, this was not the slightly annoying elephant for him, but much more of a hugely annoying and very disappointing elephant, well, elephants to be more precise.. as he had invited all of his friends to come and stay too, and so there are various elephant puppets used all handled by the same lady (Alex Bloomer), which just really added to the confusion.
There are a couple of nice effects, and the toilet / shower scene caused much hilarity, and the set design is good as it seems to transform before your eyes quite seemlessly from Sam's house, to the zoo to an aeroplane and back again, but the elephant's catchphrase of 'Silly Boy!' grated after a while.
That's not to say that the younger children didn't enjoy it.... looking around the room, most seemed to be engaged and entertained. And although the play offers no audience interaction, they seemed to be having a better time of it that my co-reviewer.
HOME's Theatre space is no more than a studio theatre with uncomfortable raised bench seating, so 50 minutes was plenty long enough to be sat on there with a numb bum! But the youngsters didn't seem to mind this discomfort either. Presented by Little Angel Theatre, the set was very bright, perhaps too bright; and the characterisations very bold and monodimensional; perhaps too much so; it all seemed, for me at any rate, to have been taken straight out of the pages of the book (perhaps that was intentional) rather than trying to make a welcoming, subdued and more individualistic interpretation which would work on stage.
I think all told, the younger children would have had a better experience since they bought in to the elephant more, but would not have understood the whole narrative of the story - that Sam had signed up for an "adopt an elephant" scheme and the 'moral' at the end of the play was that you should always read the small print! It's inoffensive and quite humorous. However co-reviewer Daniel and myself left feeling underwhelmed and disappointed.
Guest Reviewer - Sue English
on - 22/12/19
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