THE REVOLTING FOOD: Brog Puppets, Touring
THE REVOLTING FOOD: Brog Puppets
Touring: for details 0771 902 1190 (but don't hang about Brog Puppets are retiring at the end of the year.)
Runs: 55m, no interval, for 4 7 year olds
Review: Rod Dungate, mac, Birmingham: 21 September 2002
All the delights of simplicity: glove and stick puppets, and an ill-mannered sausage dog: orchestrated by a man who knows how to work with his young audience: a total experience.
THE REVOLTING FOOD has all the delights of simplicity one man (Mr Brog), his puppet booth and 16 puppets (a mixture of glove, stick and kitchen utensils). This, plus Mr Brog's easy-going manner that quickly builds a rapport with his young audience while at the same time focusing their attention, enabling them to be more receptive.
It's a simple tale to adults it might be dotty but to the young people entirely logical: they cheer, boo, make suggestions (helpful and off-the-wall!) and laugh whole-heartedly at jokes that adults miss. (How can adults fail to see what's funny about a sausage dog with its head in a saucepan? I ask you.) This is a very ill-mannered dog, by the way, constantly repeating 'Sniff, sniff, sniff. Poooooh!'
Young Jessie has to stay with her Aunt while her mother is in hospital. The trouble is her Aunt in obsessed with cleanliness, Jessie having four baths a day, and cutting corners with convenience foods. Naturally the foods go into revolt, led by Black Forest Cherry Cake (yes, with a German accent), aided and abetted by Cheshire Cheese and Fairy Cake The enemy is headed up by Major General Sir Nonstyke-Frypanne who has a long line of lower ranks, including an everso upper-crust Coffee Pot, a Liverpudlian Colander and Milk Pan. The enemy enlist Mould while the food enlist Rust. Get the picture?
Jessie and her Aunt are quite elaborate glove puppets which sit well alongside the simpler stick ones. Part of the real magic is the children talking to kitchen utensils brought wonderfully alive. I can only imagine that when the children get home they'll be making up their own plays in their kitchens what could be better.
Mr Brog finishes the programme by opening up his booth and showing the young people how it all works. It's a total experience.
2002-09-22 09:44:24