Writer: Sophie Anderson
Adaptor: Oliver Lansley
Directors: Oliver Lansley and James Seager
Music: Alexander Wolfe
Lyrics: Alexander Wolfe and Oliver Lansley
Les Enfant Terribles are known for their uniquely creative mix of live folk music, song and puppetry, skilfully bringing stories to life and what better to bring to the stage this Christmas than the much-loved children’s book The House with Chicken Legs, a story steeped in myth and folklore?
The story is derived from Slavic fairy tales told to writer Sophie Anderson when she was young by her grandmother. It is one of Marinka (Eve de Leon Allen), a twelve-year-old who lives in a house with her grandmother, or Baba (Lisa Howard), who is the gatekeeper of the doorway to the stars, the entrance to the afterlife through which the dead must pass.
The house has chicken legs as it must move every couple of weeks to prevent detection by the living. With only Baba, her friend the raven and these fading souls with their earthly stories for company, Marinka dreams of a normal life, where her house stays in one place long enough for her to make friends and find love.
There is a buzz in the audience, an excited expectation of children’s chatter and the crinkling of plastic sweet wrappers quickly ebbs as they become absorbed with the exceptional puppeteering of Dan Willis, a standout multi-talented performer who also plays several instruments as do the other cast members.
The raven flaps around the stage and the narrator begins to set the scene, a superb large movable house on set, which rotates for indoor scenes, with a fence of bones to which Malinka attends. It is not all dark and scary; as well as the puppetry there is humour and blatant gags to keep the atmosphere light and child-friendly.
Screen projection is artistically employed throughout to magically bring this story to life as the house must frequently move especially when Malinka heads off into the stars in search of her Baba when shadow puppetry is used. Small puppets are masterfully displayed but perhaps work better in smaller theatres than the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The book is not a novella so there is a lot of story to get through and this is where the production falls down somewhat. There is narration and storytelling through song but during these episodes, you can see young minds becoming distracted. This isn’t helped as during these parts the strong accents and loud music make it difficult to catch every word. “It’s too loud!’ cries a small child with their hands over their ears as extremely loud drums are played, done at points through the production with seemingly little point other than to disturb.
The music in this production is mostly folk which fits perfectly and is sung beautifully, especially by De Leon Allen, who is remarkably convincing as a 12-year-old. The skill and artistry in this production are superb, the set, puppet, visual and sound designers all deserve credit and the multi-talents of all the performers are simply mesmerising.
The two and a half hours fly by and it’s obvious that the audience enjoys it immensely. At the end, children stand on seats with smiles on their faces to clap along to the rousing final number showing how much joy this production has brought, even if they had not always fully understood it.
Runs until 30 December 2023
