Theatre
Little Light
North Edinburgh Arts Centre
Mary Brennan, three stars
SNOW was swirling outside North Edinburgh Arts Centre when this touring production – a collaborative initiative between theatre-makers in Scotland and Jordan – pitched its exotic tent (luckily!) inside the venue. With coats discarded and shoes kicked off, we – a mixed group of young children and adults – ducked inside the self-contained marquee, and entered a caringly assembled realm of puppetry, shadow-play, music and story-telling where spoken text was supplanted by a flow of visual imagery.
Between them, the Edinburgh-based Vision Mechanics and the Amman-based Haya Cultural Centre, have devised a cross-cultural story of a hard-working single dad, his lonely little boy and an irrepressibly cute dog who unexpectedly arrives in their lives just as a playful bright star takes a trip down to earth.
It’s a modest, fragmentary storyline, lent quiet charm by performers Hanin Awali and Mohammad Awad, two Jordanian actors who – unlike the Vision Mechanics - weren’t previously hands-on with puppetry. They succeed in swiftly establishing the characters, especially the cuddly (toy) dog that romps into the audience with as much gusto as he burrows into the affections of the boy and his father.
Where the narrative falters for the younger ones in the audience – recommended age range 5 to 8 years – is in establishing the provenance of the little star. The roof of the tent transforms into an exquisite star chart, complete with constellations and animated star signs - lovely to look at, but puzzlingly over the heads of wee ones.
Equally gorgeous, and readily understood, were the colourful landscapes projected onto the all-encompassing walls that, along with the beguiling soundscore, left snowy Edinburgh behind and took us on a warm-hearted Eastern adventure.
Now touring: See www.puppetanimationfestival.org
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here