A SPELL OF COLD WEATHER. To 31 January.
Manchester/Tour
A SPELL OF COLD WEATHER
by Charles Way
Theatre Centre at Royal Exchange Studio To 3 January 2004 then tour to 31 January
11am, 2,4,7pm various dates no performance 1 January
Runs 1hr 10min No interval
TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
boxoffice@royalexchange.co.uk (Manchester)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 December
Enjoyable revival of an outstanding play for 4-7s.Ever wondered why things aren't where you left them? Tomos Trickman's the answer in Charles Way's fine play for 4+. And if he torments grumpy old folk who won't believe in him, that seems to sum up the experience that things are never more out of place than when we're in a bad mood, hurrying and careless of others.
Old farmers Betty and Bob don't even name their small collection of animals, treating the creatures purely as commodities. It takes young Holly, staying from Christmas to New Year, when things are all freezing up, to recognise Tomos and bring a thawing humanity to the old folks in their home.
It's a play that parallels Mike Kenny's equally fine Puff, the Magic Dragon for the same age range. There too, a child's exiled during family illness to a relative who doesn't understand young people. Kenny goes for economy in developing the theme, Way for richness of incident.
Here, there's the drama of Holly, made to walk from the station to the farm, but even then starting to humanise Bob admittedly, the softer target. Between them, Holly and the spirit of Tomos, inhabiting the animals so they demand a name and a song, dance or game before they'll deliver the goods, bring a new spring to the oldsters.
Rosamunde Hutt's revival is good, though Holly's evident urban sophistication makes her a strange channel for Tomos it must be the Wordsworthian child-spirit still alive. And a certain atonality strikes some of her singing. That apart, and the huge bed dominating Caroline Thaw's set, which drives the action forward and makes some sharp viewing angles in the wide Exchange audience space, this is a clear, comic account of a play that explores life with a respect for childlike naivety and joy in existence. There's a delightful found object' childhood quality to the animal puppets, and a happiness as the characters start to dance with the new joy they've found.
It was amazing it did so at this performance. An audience of under 100 contained a large school party, with apparently a significant number of special needs pupils. As audience members they were exemplary. Not so a small group of children perpetually eating crisps, exploding open new packets, with mothers (as I presume) not only letting them carry on, but shoving their own bigger hands in to grab handfuls of e-numbers even more noisily.
I've been a bum-on-seat more than often enough to know the magic of theatre' often expresses itself through coughs, whispers, rustlings and other noises, and that one person's exploration of the significance of life can be another's surprise at seeing the same wallpaper their parents used to have.
But I'm not talking here about occasional interruptions. I'm referring to people who had every appearance of being smart and sociable behaving in a way no-one in the school party began to do; about no more than 6 people who were louder, repeatedly, than the rest of the audience far louder without realising how disruptive their behaviour potentially was for actors working a few feet from them, let alone others who'd paid for, and been looking forward to, the show.
If people can act in such a way, there's a need for theatres to develop determined policies to make clear how inappropriate and unacceptable such unmannerly behaviour is.
Betty: Carole Dance
Tomos Trickman: Dave Dickson
Holly: Anita Koh
Bob: Richard Walker
Director: Rosamunde Hutt
Designer: Caroline Thaw
Lighting: Gareth Starkey
Composer: John Hardy
Choreographer: Jeanefer Jean-Charles
Puppetry director: Sean Myatt
2003-12-25 20:16:09