Writer: Murray Lachlan Young
Director: Scott Hurran (based on the original direction by Nina Hajiyianni)
This magical tale sits firmly in the wheelhouse of the Brothers Grimm: this is not a schmaltzy, sit back and snooze story for babies. Instead Director Scott Hurran has included elements of danger, strangeness and the unknown.
Atom (Victoria Chen) and Luna (Chileya Mwampulo) are twins who have seemingly been abandoned by their mother and left to fend for themselves in a glass palace with a set of rules, including not to go into the forest, and not to talk to the animals. Of course, the twins disobey those rules (it would of course be a rubbish fairytale if they just stayed put) and resolve to see what is outside their confinements.
So begins an adventure of discovery for the twins that is beautifully staged, beginning with a meeting with the slightly confused and somewhat mysterious Iffley Sney (Alex Scott Fairley), who becomes their good friend, before falling ill and needing the twins to go on a quest to save him.
Full of quirky characters such as Old Mother Redbeard (Kate Millner), and some beautiful animal puppets, this one-hour show is well scripted by Murray Lachlan Young with a sense of fun and some humorous lines that had parents chuckling as well as the children.
The cast of four work brilliantly together to move effortlessly over and under Bek Palmer’s clever staging, through the forbidden forest and into Old Mother Redbeard’s homely cottage in a tree. Millner holds the young audience’s attention with Redbeard’s narrative, a fairytale within a fairytale, murmurs of the audience suggested that connections were being made, aiding the play in its successful movement towards its climax.
The one thing that there could have been more of is interaction with the audience. There were plenty of opportunities to do so, but the fourth wall was only broken once for a mushroom picking moment. This worked well but there should be more of these to engage the young audience.
A lovely and magical hour well spent, catch this on tour if it is near you.
Runs until 2nd November 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Magical fairytale quest
