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Family fun saving Bob the Blob
Octonauts and the deep sea volcano adventure
Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton
**** ONE thing about having a three year old
grandson – he’s four next month he tells anyone who asks, or doesn’t ask
for that matter – you get to know what is on TV for little ones. In my day it was
Muffin the Mule,
a puppet before you ask, Sooty
and Andy Pandy
– which I hated – all in black and white, for my children we had the
likes of Postman Pat
and Danger Mouse
and now it is the likes of Peppa Pig
- and don’t parents and grandchildren just love those muddy puddles
games - Ben and Holly
and Octonauts. I think it is safe to say that no other
children’s theatre production includes a siphonophore or indeed a blob
fish among the cast but then again not all theatre for tots is
Octonauts. For the uninitiated the BBC TV series, based on
the books by North American pair Vicki Wong and Michael C. Murphy, is a
sort of cross between Thunderbirds and a trip on Jacques Cousteau’s
Calypso as our intrepid adventurers respond to emergencies to rescue and
save all manner of sea creatures. They are led by Captain Barnacles (Ben Thornton),
who just happens to be a Polar Bear, Lt Kwazii (Paul Lawrence-Thomas) a
cat, who sounds a bit like a feline Joe Pasquale, Peso (Michael Lapham)
the penguin medic, Dr Shellington (Luke Lennox) the sea otter, Tweak
(Janette McManus) the rabbit and Dashi (Angela Nessi) the dachshund
along with puppets Prof Inkling the octopus and Tunip the ship’s cook
who is a vegimal, half animal and half turnip, not so much genetic
engineering as a gene pool pic’n’mix. Oh and there is some strange creature called a
human, Luke, an Octo Cadet played by Luke Lennox again. Other parts are played by puppeteers Elain
Hartley and Ben Owen. The cast had the audience involved from the
opening moments, encouraging panto style responses in a fast paced
adventure which gave us a splendidly techno Octopod bridge with flashing
lights and raising and lowering video screens all in front of a huge
video wall. The wall could be showing scenes of Scene changes were slick and we even had a deep
sea ballet of sea creatures as the Octonauts set out both to rescue
creatures threatened by the volcano and to find a blob fish – yes there
really is such a thing – called Bob who had been separated from his
brothers Bob and . . . Bob. At least the parents of these Black
Country blob fish, presumably also called Bob and Bob, would never
forget any of their names, and no doubt Bob’s their uncle (couldn’t
resist that one!).
As a show it has plenty of colour, audience
participation - the children even had to shout to get the power back up
on the ship – lively songs and plenty of action, moving along at a good
pace – remember young children can lose interest between the start and
end of a dull sentence. It also has an environmental message, that all
creatures have a place and a purpose, without preaching or trying to
hammer home its point. These are just a bunch of friendly animals with
human traits roaming the oceans trying to save and rescue their fellow
creatures – make of that what you will kids. Children’s TV has seen a number of series
transferred to stage with varying degrees of success and this first
stage tour by the Octonauts is one of the best I have seen so far.
Costumes and set are good, story is strong and simple enough to follow,
it is lively and fun, even adults seemed to enjoy it, how can you resist
a show starring a siphonophore*.
Incidentally we all know that the switch of kids’
TV series to the boards is a means of expanding the franchise but there
is a fundamental benefit way beyond the accountant’s pursuit of profit.
This is about survival of the theatre. The kids holding their flashing Octonauts LED
propellers, or clutching Octonauts foil balloons as they head off home
are the next generation of theatregoers. As I have said many times
before, childrens’ theatre is vitally important. It might be a long way
from Octonauts to Othello but the likes of Captain Barnacle is where the
journey starts. If youngsters see theatre as a magical place, a
world of wonder capturing minds and shaping emotions then they, or at
least some of them, might be hooked for life. Without good childrens’
theatre though there is so much else waiting to capture their attention
and interest and they are likely be lost to the vacuous world of social
media, downloads and video games. Octonauts and its like, pantos and shows for
older children are the missionaries for the future of the theatre. Fail
and the future could be very bleak indeed.
Roger Clarke
16-04-15 *Siphonophorea are relatives of the
jellyfish and their best known species is the Portuguese man’o’war. One
species, Praya dubia, can grow to 50 metres long, 160 feet. For a fascinating video of a strange deep
sea siphonophorea shot by exploration vessel Nautilus, click here.
http://www.nautiluslive.org/video/2014/06/27/stunning-siphonophore-sighting The Nautilus is the vessel of Dr Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the Titanic and the site has other fascinating deep sea videos as well as life feeds.
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the midnight zone of the sea, deep sea, fish in the shallows or the view
of a remote island and even the deep sea volcano.