Ho Ho Ho! by Mike Kenny. West Yorkshire Playhouse to 29 December

Leeds

HO HO HO!
by Mike Kenny

Blah! Blah! Blah! Theatre at The Courtyard, West Yorkshire Playhouse To 29 December 2001
Runs 1hr 10min No interval

TICKETS 0113 213 7700
Review Timothy Ramsden 18 December

Pleasant, but somewhat attenuated Christmas piece.Mike Kenny is a leading writer for young audiences, and he's popping up all over the place - including two Christmas appearances at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. His script for local visitors the Blahs shows his skill, but also suggests an idea being worn too thinly across a whole show.

Of course, plays need audiences and it may be the thin, if eager, sprinkling of people in the front rows meant the play was not at its best (other performances had been far fuller). And it would be hard to fault Sarah Westaway's hard work as a cheerful Mother Christmas, enlisting young audience members to help her preparations. Anthony Haddon's Father Christmas is a picture of disillusioned merriment.

Taciturn and sulky in a way children can easily understand, he's so fed up with the world he can't be bothered to go and deliver presents. Until the audience takes a guided hand in encouraging him. No doubt the Christmas period will produce a cohort of youngsters who would benefit from such cheering up. So far, Kenny has hit upon a strong device, mingling materialism with the human spirit.

But in other works he has explored the childhood experience in more depth. This may be for all ages, including the very young, but from a writer with such a pedigree, we might have hoped for more to come.

Father Christmas: Anthony Haddon
Mother Christmas: Sarah Westaway

Director: Barnaby King
Designer: emma Thistlethwaite
Lighting: Tim Skelly
Puppetry Consultant: John Barber

2001-12-28 02:18:47