FEAST. To 23 December.

London

FEAST
by Chris Speyer Music by Ieuan Goch ab Einion

Chelsea Theatre To 23 December 2003
Tue-Sat 10.30am & 1.30pm
Run s 1hr 10min No interval;

TICKETS: 0870 990 8454
www.chelseatheatre.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 December

A generous slice of culinary pleasure for up to 6s.Is it a play? Is it a party? Is it a lesson in food? All could apply to this travelling-show, fetched up for Christmas at the World's End. Its writer and composer, before they became Monster Productions, had a track-record mounting Christmas shows for up to 6s in Newcastle-upon-Tyne's Gulbenkian studio. Each was a gently-paced story with colourful incidents, songs involving audience actions, and a happy resolution.

Feast is very much another dish from the same sauce, though the story's more artfully wrapped up and touring demands, no doubt - there's slightly less scenic invention. Setting and costumes suggest merry minstrel times, though with King Nibble IV and his cook Stodge relying on a microwave, it's less a matter of period than of general colour.

More unreality (delightful stuff) as a merry jester rolls out from under the table, and a century-long sleep, with memories of pre-packaged, nourishingly varied feasts in the reign of the first royal Nibble. (Speyer's acutely caught the corruption of language in the near-identical Pork, Bean, Chicken etc fast-foods all labelled Feasts').

The story, songs and audience involvement occur as Nibble IV's reminded of life in Nibble I's reign. There's the real feast cue soup-eating, fish-holding, tummy-rubbing desserts and so on and the voyage to lands where fresh foods grow. Plenty of action climbing ship's masts, hauling in sails, weighing anchors.

Then there's the animal life, a feature of the Newcastle years and almost gratuitously brought in here with puppet dog, cat, mice - and rats to desert a docking ship. It's all good fun, colourful and lively, performed with friendly skill. And who'd dare rustle an e-heavy crisp packet during this show?

King Nibble IV: Walter James
Stodge: Stevie Thompson
Marragrew: Ralph Wadley

Director: Chris Speyer
Designer: Katherine ukleja
Lighting: Richie Orr

2003-12-18 14:46:57