Edinburgh Fringe 2015
The Tiger Who Came To Tea
Nick Brooke/Kenny Wax
Genre: Children's Theatre, Magic and Mentalism
Venue: Pleasance
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
“The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her mummy are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they certainly don’t expect to see at the door is a big, stripy tiger! Following a smash-hit West End season, the tea-guzzling tiger comes to the Edinburgh Festival in this delightful family show packed with oodles of magic, sing-a-long songs and clumsy chaos! A stunning stage adaptation of the classic tale of teatime mayhem… Expect to be surprised!”
Creative adaptation that your child won’t stop talking about!
Review
Family of three Sophie and her parents are played by a talented ensemble. There is sufficient entertainment for the grown-ups as the writing style is reminiscent of Pinter and lends itself well to children’s theatre. The show features magic that left much of the audience in awe. It leaves the untrained eye second guessing how it is done – so at the very least it is a brain workout for the audience!
Opening early doors the choreographer got actors limbering up and the actors invite the audience to join in from their seats if they wish. If you want to know if your child or children will be inspired to be the next Elijah Wood or Natalie Portman then that’s a question for them to answer – should you get tickets! Ultimately that’s up to you… and them of course! One thing is almost certain they will learn about theatre from this show.
Writer/Director David Wood’s inventive use of food as props from cakes and water, to a potted stew delights the audience through his use of secret sorcery. Stage lighting and technical work (they must have had a decent budget for this show!) are competent. It is not known which style the actors utilised to create this show – whatever it succeeded in entertaining.
Due to the fact the tiger is played by a human the audience is asked to suspend its disbelief: basically if you enjoy Michael Jackson’s music and love all aspects of theatre including Pantomimes you should see this show. If you are looking for escapism go and watch Lord of the Rings. And if you are looking to be intellectually challenged on a spiritual level get a ticket to The Gospel Enquiry.
If anything is to be recommended it would be to make the music more contemporary and the performance style more obvious. One would hope if the Tiger came to Wood’s for tea that he did not eat his OBE! However, due to his knowledge of the mystical arts, even if it did both he and his esteemed friends could magic it back again! Great!
