MOLLY WHUPPIE. To 24 December.
Edinburgh
MOLLY WHUPPIE
by Virginia Radcliffe
Wee Stories theatre company at Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2) To 23-24 December 2003
1.30pm & 5pm
Runs 1hr No interval
TICKETS: 0131 228 1404
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 December
Strongly performed, beautifully told, folk-tale ideally suited to 3-7s.Molly's a folk-tale girl, but she becomes real as life in this play, much travelled and now nearing the end of its pre-Christmas Traverse run. For Molly is real: a resourceful girl who finds courage as she undertakes the important task of bringing food to her sea-edge village for the midwinter feast.
It's a tall order - tall as the mountain she must climb, as the Giant she encounters. And it needs someone who can do extraordinary things: face up to a selfish king and walk a bridge made of a single hair.
A society needs ordinary people who can become amazing this way, through finding courage and determination. That's why Molly's a role-model for old women to teach their granddaughters. So, at the start, the two perfomers repeatedly emerge from each other's skirts as we zoom back through generations of tradition to the times when these things may have happened.
Courage brings discovery, a growing sense of how to make a difficult judgement. The voice of authority - a word from a king - cannot always be trusted. A giant may turn out less threatening than expected. Alongside the physical courage Molly has to find there's a growing moral sense, as she learns to trust her instinct.
There's comic incident - the Giant immediately allays any audience fears by asking their judgment on his frankly feeble attempts to be fearsome (a Cowardly Lion of a Giant, if ever) while participatory moments as forest sounds and trees waving in the wind help build the atmosphere of adventure.
Catherine Lindow's mobile set matches a fairy-book scene of wintery moon and steep mountains with a metal bar which gives a freewheeling feel as characters swing over it. Deborah Arnott brings a neat comic touch to her various characters (including bad King Boris whose death on the perilous bridge is somewhat brushed over in the 'Happy ever after' summing up). Contrastingly, Virginia Radcliffe gives Molly a sense of ever-present challenges being met by determination and spirited resourcefulness.
Rhythmic patterns, especially Molly's song - describing a person in whom dancing and song mix with vivid experience of running through dark woods for the sake of her people - help establish the play's essential point. When Molly finally leaves with a reminder of who she is - 'Molly Whuppie. And that was me,' after all the adventure and fun, it's possible to feel both that a good friend is saying goodbye and that we've been back in an early age and met someone who has a thing or two still to teach us, however young or old, about being a strong individual in human society.
This is the last appearance of Wee Stories' early years project, soon to be reborn as an independent company, Lickety Spit, specialising in theatre for the 3-7 range. A revival of Radcliffe's Wee Witches is their first project, touring Scotland and Belfast in spring 2004. With work of this quality, this is an age when to be young can be very heaven.
Molly Whuppie: Virginia Radcliffe
Ella Whuppie/Mrs Whuppie/Giant/King Boris: Deborah Arnott
Directors: Virginia Radcliffe, Andy Cannon
Designer: Catherine Lindow
Lighting: Tariq Hussain
Music: Tim Brinkhurst
2003-12-21 18:08:20