BRILLIANT.
London/Tour.
BRILLIANT
by Fevered Sleep.
Lyric Studio Hammersmith to 27 December 2008
16-20, 22-24, 27 Dec 10.30am, 1pm.
also 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 27 Dec 3pm.
Runs 40min No interval.
Tour details to be announced.
TICKETS: 0871 221 1721.
www.lyric.co.uk (Hammersmith).
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 December.
From dark night to worlds of light and delight.
With its main-house Cinderella for 7+ and this studio show for 3-6s (stretching a bit the 3-5 range the company quotes), Hammersmith’s Lyric has a superb double for the month of December. The good news for the younger age range is that Brilliant, developed by Fevered Sleep theatre company in conjunction with Wimbledon-based children’s theatre Polka (where this show was seen last summer) will be touring.
Admittedly, there were a very few calls of concern early on, even from the hardy young inhabitants of Hammersmith. There's no acknowledgment of the audience to provide opening comfort as performer Laura Cubitt steps through a stage-width curtain and tries to go to sleep (standing, with a pillow held to her head). And when her light goes out, it’s dark – a tough experience if you’re 3 and have been encouraged to sit at the front, separated from friendly adults.
Cubitt keeps pulling the light-cord, but each time it soon goes dark again. Then, the curtains swish open – the first of many such openings and closings - to reveal a dream world, a world of wonder, scope and possibility matching that imagined by children who write or speak their home addresses as part of The World, The Universe. Here, Laura’s child-character seems to see, and see herself as seen by, everyone and everything.
There’s an illuminated moon that moves across the skies and multiple mirrorballs representing shining celestial orbs. And music for the spheres, provided by a visibly violinist and, apparently, double-bass too. Some young people may have started feeling unnerved by the moments of physical dark; before the end most of them are on their feet delightedly reaching out towards objects swinging over their heads.
Brilliant provides plenty of sensory stimulus, and it resonates with one of the first experiences of young people, one that continues lifelong: the moment when the social world of consciousness gives way to the individual, unpredictable activity of sleep. It realises that for its very young audience a sense of story is built through experience of states rather than a connection of events. And it is, in all ways, brilliant.
Performer: Laura Cubitt.
Musicians: Double Bass: David Leahy.
Violin: Jamie McCarthy.
Director: David Harradine.
Designers: David Harradine, Ali Beale.
Lighting: Joseph Manser.
Associate director: Samantha Butler.
2008-12-28 02:10:57