STUART LITTLE. To 24 January.

London

STUART LITTLE
by E.B. White dramatised by Joseph Robinette

Polka Theatre To 24 January 2004
Sat 2pm & 5.30pm except 24 January 10.30am & 2pm Sun 2pm also schools performances 7-9,14-16,20-23 January am &pm
Watch with baby performance: 10 January 2pm (at all other performances under 5s not admitted)

TICKETS: 020 8543 4888
www.polkatheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 December

The Mouse gets the Bird in an inventive staging.Stuart's second son to New Yorkers Mr and Mrs Little; he's also a Mouse. Not metaphorically, not similar to, but physically, a Mouse. Alright, he speaks and thinks at a human level. But he's a mouse. Thankfully, E.B. White, Joseph Robinette and Annie Wood with her cast ensure his adventures come over colourfully, theatricality and character reigning; thematic points about respecting people's differences emerge naturally.

At the outset, attention's what Stuart attracts; there's heartfelt truth in big brother George's repeated attempts to make himself noticed. Sibling rivalry's understandable, especially when George, having found mother's lost ring, drops it with boyish clumsiness down a grate. Guess who's best-fitted to seek it out down there.

Ten even five - years ago Stuart would probably have been played by an actor (young, small-framed and female) in furry costume. Now he's a striking puppet, manhandled and voiced expressively by Stewart Cairns, creating an intriguing connection between puppet expression and human voice, while also allowing Stuart to whirl speedily through the air or to be duplicated as he disappears through a stage grate by an even littler Stu-puppet descending from above with voice echoing in the sewerage system.

At cat-size we have live actor, Joanna Holden, not sinister just following her nature against mouse and bird Stuart's beloved Margalo, herself an ingenious golden fur mounted on a couple of flapping brolly spokes. It's all part of the high theatricality, which also includes moving waves and a fast-disappearing New York skyline as Stuart's cast adrift with the city garbage.

There are routines with wind-blown, rain-spattered New Yorkers that might be from a young person's On The Town, and the comic eruption of a hillbilly hoedown into the mystically silent countryside city mouse Stuart experiences for the first time while pursuing his beloved.

The separate adventures make narrative drive harder; things drag a bit before the interval attention's stretched just when the story can least call on inventive theatricality. The puppet's inability to energise the audience (his operator has to focus on the puppet) makes life difficult at such moments. But Stuart Little's very largely a delight.

Stuart Little: Stewart Cairns
Mr Little: Neil Smye
Mrs Little: Nancy Baldwin
George Little: Ross Sutherland
Snowbell: Joanna Holden
Margalo: Erina Baresh

Director: Annie Wood
Designer: Gemma Fripp
Lighting: Peter Higton
Film: Jon Midlane
Musical Director: Olly Fox
Choreographer: Ian Waller
Stuart Little puppet: Lindy Wright

2004-01-02 11:32:24