Edinburgh Fringe 2012

Once Upon A …

Pipe Up Productions and New Celts Productions

Genre: Children's Theatre

Venue:

the Space @ Surgeon's Hall

Festival: Edinburgh Fringe

Low Down

Review

If you want to treat your children to something that is truly interactive, that uses all the elements of improvisation, and encourages them to use their imaginations in a fantastically funny show, then “Once Upon A …” is the show for you.  This is one of the best examples of children’s interactive theatre I have ever seen and is engaging for not only the children, but the adults as well.

The show begins outside the performance space, where we are introduced to two of the characters by playing some games with them, a beach-ball and our imaginations … and then the door is opened, the ball accidentally gets thrown through, and we are welcomed to follow it … into Imagination Street.

Encouraged to think of the space not as a room, but as a rainbow; and all the seats not as chairs, but as clouds, we are invited to sit, and our adventure begins.

As the story unfolds, we are drawn into it, and needed in it.  Each time a challenge is encountered, it is the suggestions of the audience that help solve it.  No suggestion is too silly, and no child is ignored.  Even the superpowers of “tomatoes and cheese” (as suggested by a 4 year old) solved many many problems as the adventurers tried to catch the troll and put him back inside the story book.

So well thought-out is the piece, that even the exit of the audience from the room is included in the story.  As the story concludes, the Fairy Flo ‘magics’ a giant book and box of crayons to the bottom of Imagination Street (just outside the door of the space), and everyone is encouraged to draw something magical in it.

This is a strong piece of theatre, performed by a skilled troupe of improvisor performers (4 actors, 1 musician/genie and 1 technician) that your family will remember for a long time to come.  Don’t miss it!  

Published August 7, 2012 by Alison Pollard-Mansergh