3 STARS, May 29 – June 3. The story is slow on the get-go and idles over cheery songs but charming nonetheless, says Sharon Wallace
Robert Day
What better way to occupy the kids on a rainy afternoon than a performance based on one of their favourite stories? Julia Donaldson fans will of course be familiar with the highly successful children’s picture book, What the Ladybird Heard.
As we nestle down into our seats at The Rose Theatre, the scene is already set for a colourful farmyard adventure.
The farmer’s song starts the show and is full of originality and merriment. We find ourselves jigging along to the tunes but they are far from catchy and for good or bad, you won’t leave the auditorium humming these tunes for the rest of the day.
As the songs labour on a little, the story feels slow to start, leaving my three year old daughter proclaiming “But there are no animals”. To her delight the stage eventually begins to fill with the familiar farmyard characters. This is my favourite part of the show as the cast of four cleverly create the woolly sheep, the hairy hog, the fat red hen and the dainty dog out of found objects from around the farm. A pitchfork, a bucket and some old rope transform into a fine horse whilst a watering can becomes a great substitute for a goose. These look great and the imaginative creatures bring plenty of audience participation as the children start moo-ing, oink-ing and quack quack-ing along.
The feel good factor continues and as the songs idle on some more, my two year old starts to get restless and is soon looking for distraction. However this performance is aimed at children aged three years and over. Her interest is soon reignited when she spots a sighting of the glowing ladybird.
The 55-minute show feels very polished and the cast deliver an exuberant performance throughout. But it is Lanky Len played by Benedict Hastings who steals the show and injects some much-needed humour into proceedings with his goofy, off-the-wall antics.
He soon pairs with Hefty Hugh played by Edward Way as the bungling duo devise their scheming plan to steal the prize cow from the farm. Perfectly timed percussion that helps to set the scene accompanies their slapstick endeavours and outright silliness.
This light-hearted caper is definitely worth seeing. With impressive staging and scenery that looks as though Lydia Monks’ creative talents have jumped right out the page, it is easy to see that she had a part to play in bringing the creative elements to life. The storyline is a little tricky to follow for little ones and knowledge of the book beforehand would certainly help.
The show runs throughout half term at The Rose Theatre until Sunday 3rd June – rosetheatrekingston.org
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