"it was THIS BIG!". Tour to 18 August.

Young People

"it was THIS BIG!" – a slightly fishy tale

Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company Tour to 18 August 2002
Runs 55min No interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 27 July at Burford Garden Company

A pleasant, gentle tale, technically well-told, going well with lazy-days in the sun.Regina's fish-stall has two very different owners. Fetching the fish is good old Reg, who loves the sport and would prefer to throw his scaly pals back to watery life. Mostly he does, but one has to eat.

And he has Gina, his partner, the cook, to satisfy. She's the acquisitive, competitive kind. Delia, Jamie, all the celeb. chefs, feel the lash of her ladle.

But not as much as poor old Reg, who's sent back for more when he comes home with too little.

Gina's confined to the space straight in front of us in this open-air show. Behind her lie the stepped-waves of Reg's fishing-ground. And there, while Gina's been left storming, fuming, boiling and frying back home, he comes across the Queen of all fish. For Gina, Queenie would be mere product; but she provokes in Reg the kind of appreciation that makes Gina suspect he's got another woman.

Given the fantasy underwater sequence that develops when Reg dives away from land-life she's not that far out.

Gently prodding us towards ecological concerns (think of overfished salt-water breeds), the play is neatly tricked out with colourful aquatic and waterside puppets, mostly disporting themselves contentedly, but menaced on occasion by a sharp-toothed pike.

It doesn't dig deep. But young people who have discovered two parents can be very different individuals will recognise the human tensions, while the fantasy elements are colourful and have a fairy-tale appeal.

No cast details available

Director: Jeremy James
Designer: Sophia Lovell Smith
Music: Jon Nicholls

2002-07-28 10:32:22