THE IGNATIUS TRAIL. To 29 August.

Edinburgh

THE IGNATIUS TRAIL
by Oliver Birch

Smirnoff Underbelly (Big Belly) To 29 August 2004
Thu-Tue 12.15pm
Runs 1hr 15 min No interval

TICKETS: 0870 745 3083
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 August

Witty if not quite perfectly-proportioned, sea-adventure for 8+.75 minutes is quite a long time without interval in a show for 8+. But if it's presented by en masse theatre company in a venue known as Big Belly, something of substance might be expected.

This is a piece to take children to, rather than hope granny and grandpa or the school trip will save the necessity of going yourself. Writer/composer Oliver Birch has a wicked way with a shaggy sea-dog tale, pirating high-seas expectations with the nicest, politest , jolliest rogerers of the lot. Even Gilbert and Sullivan's pirates seem black-hearted villains by their side.

Of course, in the age of targets and mission-statements this couldn't be allowed to continue, so crew and captain face an inspection by the fearful Celia Salt, who starves them into evil ways.

As a result of which, ship's lad Ignatius Trail is cast overboard - his colloquy with the ocean's champion ugly mermaid as he floats on a log between strips of see, impressively opens Amy Leach's witty production, with its ship's bridge moulded round a piano.

The sophisticated wordplay of this script might well pass 8 year-olds by, but there's plenty to enjoy in the performances, as well as some blithely silly ideas - the blind lookout repeatedly announcing "Land ahoy" for one. And the pirates' sure incompetence faced with the tough Ms Salt.

Less happily, Birch shows a relentless use of toilet-related jokes that's a sure sign of incertainty in addressing young people. And while young audiences take a measure of darkness, later scenes spend a long time at the depths of despair, while Ignatius' underwater mission to answer four questions isn't quite strongly enough established as a necessity of the action to make it cohere, especially as it takes the story into the hitherto dramatically uncharted waters of a different kind of fantasy.

So it's good fun rather than a new classic - though popular enough to have extra performances added (early afternoons) in the final week. That's no surprise given the script's general wit, the pacily imaginative production and fine comic playing throughout.

Captain: Ben Smith
Slave: Oliver Birch
Ignatius: Dan McGowan
Mermaid: Dan Lewis
Celia Salt: Tiffany Wood
Bingo: Ross Devlin
Ron: Harry Haddon-Paton

Director: Amy Leach
Designers: Williams Oldroyd, Steve Birch

2004-08-24 12:11:21