THEATRE REVIEW: The Three Little Pigs - Z-Arts Centre, Manchester.

Stuff And Nonsense Theatre Company are well known for providing quality theatre for young children, and this afternoon I was at Manchester's premier children's theatre venue, The Z-Arts Centre in Hulme, to watch their latest production, 'The Three Little Pigs'.

We all know the story right? Wrong. This was a devised and somewhat bastardised version of the familiar tale. In this version, written and devised by the company along with a group of Year 6 children, we see a bright and enigmatic narrator (somewhat in the style of Willy Wonka) start to tell us the story, but is interrupted by the three pigs entering the theatre late, and finding themselves onstage and a part of the story. We do eventually get round to the pigs living in a house of straw and the wolf blowing it down, but it is a very long time coming. The straw house sequence itself though was superbly executed. One of the best vignettes in the whole show. The house made of wood was a tree house and less successful, whilst the brick house was frankly very disappointing.  

Two performers worked their socks off during this 65 minute piece of non-stop action. Both Jenny Harrold and Donal Craigie committed fully to their roles and the story, and both were physical performers too using much physical theatre in their roles. Harold, predominantly, was the eldest of the three pigs whilst Craigie interchanged between narrator and wolf (the same character?) among others. The two younger pigs were puppets, and they managed to not only create believable and likable characterisations for them, but their handling of these puppets was also expert.

This was, in the hands of director Niki McCretton, a standard theatre production on a stage with lighting and al the magic that a theatre creates; but it also broke the fourth wall from the start, acknowledging they were performing for us on a stage, and although they never came among us, they were happy for the youngsters to scream and shout and interact at appropriate moments throughout. It was though both a little long and a little to confusing. Not enough distinction between their characters at times made it difficult for the youngsters to follow the story, which was difficult enough to follow from the start. The youngsters only truly engaged with the silliness and the aw-factor. And a further consideration would be that although excellent use was made of the movable stage parts, when the "stage" was created, it was too far stage left, meaning that the puppetry within the false prosc arch they created was lost to those seated to the extreme left of the auditorium. I did enjoy the silly jokes in there that only the adults would have understood. Very much like a panto inasmuch as there was something there for everyone. Nice.

Within the show there were three or four songs (Jeremy Bradfield), which were catchy enough and there was a nice bit of harmony going on at one point; but they did not truly engage the young ones as I have seen other songs in similar productions do.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 11.11,23