JEMIMA PUDDLEDUCK AND HER FRIENDS. To 22 April.

London

JEMIMA PUDDLEDUCK AND HER FRIENDS
adapted by Adrian Mitchell, music by Stephen McNeff, from Beatrix Potter
Potter

Unicorn Theatre (Weston auditorium) Tooley Street SE1 2HZ To 22 April 2007
Tue-Sun various dates 10.15am, 10.30am, 1.15pm, 2pm
Audio-described 8March 1.15pm
BSL Signed 24 March 2pm
Family Day 24 Feb, 10, 24 March, 11, 21 April 2pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7645 0560
www.unicorntheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 February

Animal life and human experience beautifully translated from pages to stage.
Beatrix Potter’s animal stories have marvellous still pictures by the author. Tony Graham’s Unicorn production (for 4+) makes sure they have fine moving pictures too. Partly this is thanks to Adrian Mitchell’s skilful sewing of 4 tales within a frame provided by the figure of the author (Zara Plessard, straight-backed and purposeful while catching the amused mind behind the stories, is perfect – and she plays the piano).

There’s a fine contribution from Stephen McNeff’s score, either directly tuneful or implying tonal melodies; the act-two opener about rain develops like a fully-fledged Sondheim number. Aided by actors’ instrumental abilities and Rosalind Paul’s movement, there are both choreographed moments – Jemima and family’s waddle – and action sequences that add to the swift, clear tale-telling.

Danger and violence lurk in the stories; to prevent the Farmer’s Wife taking her duck-eggs, Jemima walks into the woods and finds herself gathering herbs for a supper where she’d be chief ingredient. Later, Tom Kitten gets rolled in pastry as a delicacy for rats.

Mr Jeremy Fisher, the frog, finds collecting fish suppers straight from the stream is trickier than he’d thought. Potter had no illusions about the natural world, however beautiful, or human experience. The central characters’ vulnerability (Squirrel Nutkin is the other in the quartet) and the menacing, if sometimes inviting types around them, capture a child’s world both as a place of wonder and friendship, and as a place where frustration or longing for adventure can lead into deep waters.

Performances capture all this, in Amanda Gordon’s naïve assurance as Jemima, Rhiannon Meades’ lithe, naughty Nutkin, Neil Gore’s self-important Jeremy or, by contrast, Pete Ashmore’s rapacious rat Samuel. Ako Mitchell provides a sleek fox and slow-moving owl, and Francesca Loren an impulsive, boyishly over-confident kitten.

Tony Graham’s production is full of fine detail (rubber bands flicked around representing worms for Jeremy’s bait). The humour-quotient increases throughout; two kittens grow up to be highly socially-poised cats. The 2 wooden discs of Sophia Lovell Smith’s set create both land and water, with a river-cloth surrounding Jeremy Fisher as his predicament heightens, all making for a bright and happily-inventive entertainment.

Twinkleberry/Samuel Whiskers: Pete Ashmore
Jemima Puddleduck/Moppet: Amanda Gordon
Jeremy Fisher/Tabitha Twitchit: Neil Gore
Mosstail/Tom Kitten: Francesca Loren
Squirrel Nutkin/Anna Maria: Rhiannon Meades
Fox/Old Brown/Mrs Ribby: Ako Mitchell
Beatrix Potter: Zara Plessard

Director: Tony Graham
Designer: Sophia Lovell Smith
Lighting: Oliver Fenwick
Musical Director: Stephen McNeff
Movement/Assistant director: Rosalind Paul
Assistant music director: Phil Cornwell

2007-02-23 01:53:11