Presented as the opening production in Applecart Arts' 'Dazed New World' online Fringe Theatre Festival, Elephant Talk Theatre's "Finding Percy Erebus" was a 30 minute piece which for me at least asked more questions than it answered.
The advertising for this production makes several statements which sady I have to challenge. Most importantly though is their use of the word 'magical' in relation to a children's production. When reading this word one immediately thinks of places of wonderment and beauty, tricks and surprises to challenge and amaze the imagination and the eye - a certain wow-factor; not the scary and creepy 'magic' of face masks with an 'It' style clown's smile, or strange body contortions and pseudo-mysterious movements. There was neither magic nor anything magical involved in this story, unless you count the second opening of the suitcase right at the end of the play. Which leads me to my second point. At no point during the production did I understand that the briefcase she was carrying was a metaphor for her grief, and that by opening it at the end and allowing herself to be 'open' did she find peace. This allegory was hidden far too deeply, and as this production is advertsied for ages 7 upwards (I would advise a little older to be fair), then these youngsters are not going to recognise this either. The style and feel of the presentation is too dark and without humour for young ones. It's sardonic, stylised, dimly lit, and the shadow puppetry, physical theatre and other techniques used throughout are not of the happy-go-lucky genre which one would normally associate when pairing such things with the words 'children's entertainment'.
There are three young performers involved in this minimalist telling of a story which we don't actually understand: Who is she? Where has she come from? Why is she alone? Who is Percy Erebus? Why is she trying to find him? Why does she go to extraordinary lengths to try and find him, including managing to survive at the bottom of the ocean? Who are the pirates/ the dancers/ the doctors? - in fact a basic understadning of the whys and wherefores of the plot would have been a good idea.
The two positives which I can take from this production are that all three performers were completely dedicated and committed to their production and worked excellently together, despite not really making it either accessible or understandable. And the original music composed specifically for this show was excellently conceived, and putting both together, the performers and the music were completely in sync at all times and this was clever and inventive.
Reviewer - Chris Benchley
on - 13/10/20
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