What a sweet treat for ages three to seven this is - but then Clare McGarry and her Grinagog Theatre company have a very tasty track record when it comes to keeping young audiences entertained and involved.
Past hits include Max on Holiday and Little Ulla but this new piece, The Edibles, also acknowledges special needs with its innate emphasis on accessability. The simple story-telling text of previous shows has given way to a generously detailed gestural language, delivered with a merry flourish of slapstick clowning and underpinned by catchy rhythmic hums and percussings that tie in blithely with the action.
That action is set in a cake shop where the set looks like a scrummy gingerbread house: just the place to inspire three happy-go-lucky bakers - McGarry herself, with Becki Gerrard and Alasdair Hankinson as the sidekicks who help cook up a fancy three tier cake. Their antics - rituals of synchronised mixing and genial mucking about - add up to a pretty fine package of fun, but when a cutesy-furry mouse arrives and steals away with bits of the cake, not once but twice, the fun escalates - uproar for the bakers, and more hilarity for us. When the trio plot a biff-bang-wallop revenge on the marauding rodent, cue squeals of delighted anticipation from the front rows. Those soon turn to smitten 'aaaaws and ahhhs' when three wee meeces also emerge and our cooks revert to being total softies. On paper, this could seem like a very simple scenario, but on-stage it is an unstinting display of inventive hi-jinks with a cleverly-crafted design, deft puppetry and a whole-hearted serving of comedy mayhem from the cast. Second helpings? Yes please!
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