THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKERS. To 11 January.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKERS
by Mike Kenny

Northern Stage Ensemble at Gulbenkian Studio, Newcastle Playhouse To 11 January 2003
Mon-Sat 10.30am (not 16 December, 6 January) & 1.30pm No performances 25 December, 1 January
BSL Signed 12 December 1.30pm
Runs 1 hr No interval

TICKETS 0191 230 5151
Review Timothy Ramsden 29 November

Kenny's gentle play is opened up for Christmas fun in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.This is a Christmatisation of Mike Kenny's play for up to 6s.The action takes up the length of the Gulbenkian space: even the auditorium entrance becomes the shop door, with keen shoemakers offering new footwear. And with Tony Nellson's guitar-clad Busker warming up the audience and doubling as satisfied customers for the fine footwear the constructive elves make overnight to restore the shopkeepers' fortunes, there's a happy atmosphere.

Gulbenkian Christmas shows have traditionally had a measure of audience participation, singing and – well, accompanying actions, if not exactly dancing. It's not so integral here, but Adel Johnson's production manages to slip the odd song in near the start, to make sure we're in the mood.

And when Mark Calvert and Joanna Holden have gone to bed in their human forms, foodless and fireless in their cheery poverty, they reappear through the floor, first as curiosity-rich puppets, then as their fully-formed elvish selves to labour at the leather. Not, of course, before they've provided a good dose of physical comedy and young-child type simple quarrels: who'll stitch the red, and who the blue is, naturally enough, a great source of comic dissension.

Imogen Cloet provides a scrubbed environment – no dirt in this seasonal shop, however grave the poverty - and Johnson's production keeps the bright-lit action moving. The fun at times depends upon audiences enjoying a routine more than once – there's quite a lengthy one involving the problems of threading a needle: which, if you're an elf, is as tall as a haystack.

Throughout, the resolution of the routines lies in agreement and co-operation. And by the time there's food and firewood, and each character has their Christmas present, the sense of satisfaction's felt all round the theatre.

Old Man/Elf: Mark Calvert
Old Woman/Elf: Joanna Holden
Busker: Tony Nellson

Director: Adel Johnson
Designer: Imogen Cloet
Lighting: Chris Slater
Sound: Bob Brown
Music: devised by Northern Stage Ensemble

2002-12-10 14:44:46