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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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The Christmas Elves
Mint Theatre Society
Wylde Green United Reformed Church
**** I have quite an admiration for Mint, the
Bedouins of the theatre world, nomadic thespians with their pop-up
productions in the most unlikely venues such as village halls and a club
concert room more suited to karaoke than Chekov. This latest production popped up in a new venue,
a church hall which has a stage and tabs, but that is pretty much it,
with no wings to speak of, no flies and, perhaps most important when it
comes to mood and ambiance, no stage lighting, and, as always, scenery,
props and sets that have to fit in the back of a car. Director Liz Daly has added to Mark Whiteley’s
The Christmas Elves and the Shoemaker to create a festive,
family morality tale with a charm all of its own, the basic message
being it is better to be kind and help people than to be selfish and
nasty, and you can’t argue with that . . . Well, you can actually, or at least Onion can,
Onion being the National Union of Elves self-appointed shop steward at
Santa’s North Pole workshop who leads a mass walkout when Santa demands
longer hours and a doubling of effort to have everything ready for
Christmas. . . OK, it’s not quite mass, more a two-man walkout, him and
Sage. Sage and Onion . . . get it . . . all right, please yourself. Sage, played as a sort of reluctant rebel by David Stonehouse, and Onion, played with a rebellious delight by Alex Howell, are the stars of the show, quite a polished double act who starred as Ernest and Algernon in Mint's excellent The Importance of Being Earnest earlier this year.
Wanting just shoes for Christmas. . . Charlotte Ball as Lady Mariah of Carey with her sole-singing backing group, presumably The Shoetttes, Liz Daly, left shoe, and Ellie Ball right They gave us a few standard panto routines such
as “I’ll hold the nail and when I nod my head, hit it” and a confusion
of making a table with two planks which amused adults but positively
brought laughs from children – who sadly were painfully thin on the
ground. A miserable wet day followed by a cold, dark
night with the added deterrent of pouring rain are not the best
encouragement to pop along to the church hall for a Christmas show you
haven’t heard of. But for those who ventured out it was an evening full of gentle warmth. The shoemaker is Peter, played with the air of one of life’s losers by Ian Toulouse. He is struggling to pay his rent or buy food, all of which is not helped by his inability to make shoes that don’t look like surgical boots from the 1950s – not everything retro comes back into fashion it appears - and then we discover he doesn't really want to be a shoemaker - he wants to be a storyteller. And that is where Sage and Onion come in, after
first fiddling Peter out of his last pair of shoes by out and out
trickery – although Peter’s IQ has a few question marks over it after he
was conned so easily - the pair find contrition, Onion somewhat
reluctantly. We discover they, or at least Sage, was a
top-notch shoemaker, the pair, cobblers you might say, set about
secretly helping Peter by knocking up height of fashion footwear while
he sleeps. These are glamour shoes wanted by the likes of
Lady Gaga, or, perhaps more accurately, Onion in a frock and a wig who
is just about passable as a women if you ignore the beard, he is in
complete darkness and he/she is seen from a distance, preferably in a
separate room – a sprinkling of festive magic can only do so much. The shoes are so popular they even attract the
attention of Lady Mariah of Carey, played, with legs that go on and on
for ever, by Charlotte Ball, Liz Daly’s daughter by the way, who had a
festive moment launching into All I Want For Christmas is Shoes
. . . (more groans). With a few trials and tribulations an
accommodation is reached with Peter and the elves with Sage and Onion
saying stuff it (groan) to their life as gangstas, init, and becoming
Peter’s partners, Peter using his new found wealth to help others, as
well as selling shoes with stories attached, while Stan Hubbard’s Santa
Claus forgives his runaway elves and the entire cast of 13 appear
Wishing it Could Be Christmas Every day. Along the way we run into that well-known busker
Nancy Shoenatra, shoes perhaps more appropriate than sin in a family
shoe . . . sorry, show. Nancy is played by Liz Daly, who managed to shoe
in (puns can be catching) These Boots Were Made For Walking. Then there was Elfis, played, uh uhn, by David Daly, Liz’s husband, with his blow up guitar, and collection of Elfish Elvis puns and songs . . . and yes, his big number was Blue Suede Shoes . . . could there be theme here perhaps?
Could you please avoid walking on the blue suede shoes . . . its Elfis, played by David Daly And completing the Daly roll call, we open with
Ellie Ball, Charlotte’s sister, who is Rocking Around The Christmas
Tree and later launches into Happy Feet
with a nice bit of tap to show how happy her feet actually were. That old panto favourite If I were not a
. . . in this case Christmas Elf, made an appearance, complete
with custard pie in face, and we had enough puns to fill a year’s worth
of crackers, while musical interludes were added by Kevin Boyd on the
electric Joanna in the corner. Sadly, a small audience - numbers, not a
collection of little people that is - and a dirth of children made it
hard work for the cast with a script that needed more bodies to bounce
off beyond that fourth wall, and they did remarkably well to give the
show some life and fill the hall with enthusiasm . . . and a few sweets,
giveaway Christmas decorations for the children and the odd spray of
water. Hopefully the numbers will be swelled when they
return to more familiar stomping ground at
Shenstone Village Hall on Friday, 29 November
and Stonnall Village Hall on
Saturday, 30 November. I long ago realised that the real reviewers of
family shows are not the old fogies – like me – but the youngsters, like
my grandchildren; my eldest, aged eight, has more than 40 different
productions under his belt ranging from the RSC to BRB, so knows what he
is talking about. His verdict? He thought it was good, liked the funny
bits and, most important, he enjoyed it. And I can’t say fairer than
that. Roger Clarke 23-11-19 |
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