Brighton Fringe 2012
Mrs McMoon
Katie Grace Cooper
Genre: Children's Theatre
Venue:
The Hurly Burly
Festival: Brighton Fringe
Low Down
The charming story of a little girl called Mary Jane who brings the joy of rainbows to a grey, dull and boring town. A perfectly pitched piece for 2-5 year olds.
Review
I arrived with my two and a half year old daughter on a grey day with the Hurly Burly tent surrounded by traffic but before I had a moment for my heart to sink, Mrs McMoon herself rushed out to greet us. We parked the buggy in the buggy shack and sat together inside on the rugs with Mrs McMoon. Soon the rain and the traffic were forgotten as we lost ourselves in Mrs McMoon’s cosy world.
The charming story is about a little girl called Mary Jane who lives in a grey, dull and boring town where there is no sunshine, rain or rainbows. She goes off on an adventure by herself where she makes a wish for rainbows. The rainbows come in three big bags. She arrives home and tells her parents the news. They spread the word and the whole town flock to try and buy her rainbows. They sing a song and dance and ask to buy a rainbow with a pot of gold. At this point we all learnt the song and dance of the villagers.
She refuses to sell, and then a young boy offers her chocolate cake! She cannot resist and trades one of her rainbows with the cake. The town cannot believe their eyes! In excitement all the families rush home together and start to bake. All the baking had lifted everybody’s mood.
It wasn’t long before everybody was queuing to offer her treats, even though Mary Jane didn’t have enough rainbows to go around, so to solve the confusing problem she set the rainbows free! Everybody rejoiced and celebrated the new bright shiny town. Tables were laid, music played and the villagers danced ,sang and ate in the streets.
A perfectly pitched piece for 2-5 year olds. Where Katie Grace Cooper, the young, pretty actress under Mrs McMoon’s spectacles and fake saggy boobs, completely held their attention simply with her voice, and her dynamic, yet gentle energy. It was brave and refreshing that the storytelling relied purely on the energy and performance of Mrs McMoon with the addition of beautifully made, naïve, cardboard cutout pictures.
This was storytelling at its purest and most comforting. There were no lapses in pace and at exactly the times when little ones could get distracted the interaction began. First the singing, then at the end the rainbow parachute which the children loved and the grand finale of homemade chocolate chip cookies, which confirmed that if there were any further stories from Mrs McMoon, these children would all come back.
A truly lovely show and a simple but magical event to take a little one to.
