JELLY BEAN JACK. To 27 April.

London.

JELLY BEAN JACK.

Little Angel Theatre To 27 April 2008.
Wed, Fri 10am & 1pm.
Sat (and Wed, Fri in school holidays) 11am & 2pm.
Sun 2pm.
Runs 1hr 20min One interval.

TICKETS: 020 7226 1787.
www.littleangeltheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 29 March.

The Beanstalk goes west.
What’s this – Jack and his beanstalk in Sam Shepard land? It seems possible as a model limousine is guided through the Little Angel’s auditorium to the table-top desert where Jack and his mother keep their caravan-shack. In fact, they’re so poor it’s hard to know what the auto’s doing there, if not just passing through, with its dark-specs toting guide.

This is very much a show of two halves. The first shows the poor life in what turns out to be the Mexican desert. There’s puppet comedy with a recalcitrant cow, human comedy with two lively chilli-sellers, and vegetable comedy with their equally lively chillies. The men are later muted into the auto-response dullness of assistants in a corporately-owned supermarket.

This slow-paced first half could do with more narrative energy at times, but the mood changes after the interval, during which Jack’s bean elongates to give him access to giant-land. Here, a Giant whose wealth might be the equivalent of supermarket profits, and who’s a latter-day Elvis Presley, squashes the golden eggs his imprisoned chicken hatches into coins, adding to his piled-up wealth before twanging himself to sleep with a magic guitar.

Jack purloins a coin from the giant’s hand, escaping his fury. After this brisk action, he’s pursued down the beanstalk by the Giant, who falls to earth but is not killed. This leads to a violent combat that turns into a comic stand-off, finishing with the Giant’s body strewn across the set.

There’s a mix of puppet and human performances in Peter Glanville’s production. The piece certainly had young audience-members on the edge of their seats by the end, though some of the younger 5+ spectators were hiding their eyes during later scenes.

Performed with a mix of simple Spanish (always translated) and English, the comedy, satire on supermarket commercialism and a potentially terrifying Giant, don’t always seem aimed at a single audience. Perhaps this means something for everybody, though it’s hard to pin down a core age for the show. It’s certainly a fresh, specific angle for the story, with fine puppetry and two enjoyable human performances.

Director: Peter Glanville.
Designer: Mila Sanders.
Composer: James Hesford.
Puppets: Sue Dacre.

2008-04-01 03:36:59