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Peppa Pig's Best Day EverThe Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham**** As a grandma – on my first ever theatre review – I felt I needed a little help. So I enlisted my two grandchildren, Coco - aged 5 and Orson – aged 10, Orson (a cool Year 5 dude!) was initially rather recalcitrant; worried he would be the oldest child there. But I gave him the role of audience observer and reviewer’s apprentice! Giving him permission to join in . . . which he secretly wanted to do. However Coco was captivated! The transformation from cartoon to the stage worked really well for her and once it transpired that Peppa Pig was actually live on stage and we could stand up and dance and sing and join in the actions – she was mesmerised. The show was delivered well – Daisy, the narrator, enthusiastically took us through Peppa Pig’s Best Day Ever. The set was bright and jolly but quite simple and rather cartoon like. Occasionally there were glimpses of back stage staff moving scenery while the smaller characters (Peppa and George) were puppets guided by puppeteers who acted as their voices as well as performing their (limited) movements. It took Coco a while to get use to this – suspending her disbelief! The larger characters were actors in costume. The story introduced many favourite characters: from the ‘jobs worth’ Mr Bull with his road closures and his digger to the ever present Miss Rabbit. We met Danny Dog, Gerald Giraffe and Suzie the Sheep. However Coco did notice that there were a limited number of characters on stage at a time. The audience age range varied from babes in arms to grand parents and in doing so tried to be all things to all people. On the whole it succeeded. The story included audience participation and educational elements – from compass readings to food at medieval banquets; understanding traffic lights to fables. 75 minutes (including the interval) passed quickly. Any longer may have lost some of the younger children but the show did finish rather abruptly – there was no curtain call and no opportunity for applause. One criticism - the sound was unnecessarily loud. Some parents had brought ear defenders. The set, lighting, costumes, words and actions were enough to hold a child’s attention. And just saying . . . the cost of merchandise. Crazy! However – we did have a great day out and a lovely way to spend time with your (grand) children who are not attached to anything at all electronic! A unanimous decision by all three of us – 4 stars! To 24-10-19 Liz Leck, (Orson & Coco) 23-10-19 |
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