A POCKETFUL OF MEMORIES. To 2 April.
Young People
A POCKETFUL OF MEMORIES
devised by the Company
Clwyd Theatr Cymru To 2 April 2004 School performances only
Review: Timothy Ramsden 26 March at Ysgol Gynradd Llandrillo/Llandrillo C.P. School
No lion, no witch but a wardrobe into a magical world for key stage one and adults lucky enough to be around.Clwyd Theatr Cymru maintains its high quality schools' work with this key stage 1 (5-7) tour, which entertained people of up to 11 in this village primary school. Starting in the classroom, actor Emyr Bell asks the class to name a favourite colour and a mood to go with it (the class elected to substitute mood-related activities football being prominent).
Then it's off to the school hall, reached through a double-sided wardrobe into a world of coloured materials, and a play covering a range of moods, viewed from a young person's perspective
Here Lily sits sewing, or playing with Matthew, the friend who freewheels in, before parental words warn him off Lily's smelly, a witch. Leon Davies catches the way Michael's anger at his parents' insistence he keep away from Lily turns to frustration at his own powerlessness. It comes out as fury against his friend as he moves away sharply, hurling his mother's accusations at her.
Then back to contrastingly happy childhood days in Lily's family's tailor's shop an establishment filled with the laugh and play of A Christmas Carol's Fezziwigs. There's ace seamstress Molly, and father himself - who tires before Lily does, his unexpected brush-off making another moment of adult behaviour aptly focused through its impact on children.
Lily can be neat, but with the fabrics tidied away her room loses its colour and spontaneity. Life's better for her and Michael when she's herself, so out comes the colourful array again.
Cler Stephens is presumably a much older Lily (music in the childhood scenes suggests the 1950s). Her composure's vital there are people best avoided by the young, while rampant self-expression can lead up blind alleys. Production and performances handle this well, Stephens and Siwan Bowen Davies as her younger self creating a sensible, trustworthy person.
There's a freshness to all the acting in Sarah Argent's colourful, well-paced production. Llandrillo's attentive audience enjoyed the visual stimulation Davies' roll-and-tumble entrance, Charlotte Lowri's mannequin stillness, arrayed in father's prize new wedding-dress. And they picked up on the thematic core, of judging people by themselves not others' prejudices about them.
Dad: Emyr Bell
Michael/Frankie: Leon Davies
Young Lily: Siwan Bowen Davies
Molly/Michael's Mum: Charlotte Lowri
Lily: Cler Stephens
Director: Sarah Argent
Designer: Totie Driver
Lighting/Sound: John Tee
Costume: Sian Jenkins
Dramaturg: Lucy Gough
2004-04-02 08:43:27