THE TRIPS AND HOPS OF WITCH CYCLE-CLOPS. To 7 August.
Scarborough
THE TRIPS AND HOPS OF WITCH CYCLE-CLOPS
by Steve Marmion
Stephen Joseph Theatre (McCarthy Theatre) To 7 August 2004
Runs 50min No interval
TICKETS: 01723 370541
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 August
Fun and story make a point in scenically-enhanced play.Tiny Time Tales' is a valuable part of the Stephen Joseph's operation. It's expanded from storytelling on Saturday mornings into 3 short dramas, including a Saturday serial Miranda's Magic Mirror and now Steve Marmion's peer-pressure comedy with digital scenery.
Like Alan Ayckbourn's Miranda it has a reverse language element; the friendly gnomes we first meet in their colourful mountain territory have name elements reversed when they come on as the cool gang, the self-designated in-crowd of the equally mountainous but far starker Witchland. But it's the visual comedy that tells.
By the time we have laughed at the gnomes' cheery tumbling, and helped them identify different coloured picnic-fun objects to tidy away, not to mention sung along with them (actions included), any friend of theirs is bound to be ours too. So it is when Roisin Rae's Cycle-Clops wheels by. But though she can just about manage a bike, a broomstick's beyond her. Misled by her wonky nose, she can't distinguish down from up which could be terminally unhelpful over such high terrain.
Her lack of skill makes her bullied by her fellow Witches. This sneeringly self-satisfied, black-garbed brigade should be enough to put any 3-8 year old off troublemakers who impose their destructive, misery-making criteria. For no sooner has Cycle-Clops been helped by gnomish ingenuity to fly (doing so over a set which, like faith, moves mountains or at least, scrolls the scenery along) and gained acceptance than she's expected to join a raid against her friends.
It's an altogether pleasant piece, letting character, action and interaction with the audience reveal the heart of the matter. Events move along after intros have been made and there are four fine performances, Jason Baughan switching from pleasant gnome to scowlingly contemptuous witch, Roisin Rae, ever-willing if often confused, relying on the audience to remind her of the gnomes' advice. And two promising young performers on Acting Scholarships at the Stephen Joseph Iain Winstanley from their Youth Theatre and Anja Rodford, whose gnome, ever-ready to float off in a dream, confirms her fine Scarborough performance last year in Ayckbourn's musicalOrvin.
Witch Cycle-Clops: Roisin Rae
Dibdibdomdom/Bidbidmodmod: Jason Baughan
Tanglie Tanglie Rose Rose/Esor Esor Eilgnat Eilgnat: Anja Rodford
Woeful Dobson/Nosbod Lufeow: Iain Winstanley
Director: Steve Marmion
Designer: Pip Leckenby
Lighting: Matt Roper/Osman Dervish
2004-08-06 11:48:10