ALL WRAPPED UP Lyric Studio, Hammersmith to 12 January

London

ALL WRAPPED UP
devised by the company

Lyric Studio, Hammersmith To 12 January 2002
Ruins 45 mins No interval

TICKETS 020 8741 2311
Review Timothy Ramsden 14 December

Delightful, imaginative comic adventure for under 6s.Seeing how many Christmas offerings seem to be vacuous entertainments glossily packaged, it's a change to find one of the season's most imaginative shows for the very young coming in plain brown wrappers. The story's simple; three friends are off to a party. Two have neatly wrapped presents to take, the third has to find box, wrapping paper and string.

This involves exploration of the many boxes and tubes that make up the set. In line with a young person's ability to imagine worlds of adventure through mundane objects, the packaging creates sounds which send the trio by raft to a desert island. There, wildlife emerges from the containers, notably a wader-bird. This is a marionette, that is a puppet on a string. But this marionette largely is string, wound in fantastic detail.

Then there's the linked pile of boxes that become a jaw-snapping reptile, chasing characters round the island, to the vocal delight of the audience whose screams of encouragement and warning reveal absolute concentration on the action.

All ends happily with a spectacular cascade of silver streamers, tying up a fine piece of visual and physical theatre for the young. It would be a shame if such an imaginative success were confined to a single Christmas season.

Performed by: Zannie Fraser, Stephen Harper, Robert Stephenson

Director: Sally Goldsworthy
Designer/Puppets: Sophia Clist
Lighting: Aideen Malone
Puppets: Simon Auton
Music: Jon Owen

2001-12-15 01:12:01