TIDDALICK. To 5 January.

Barnet

TIDDALICK

Tam Tam Theatre and The Bull at The Bull Arts Centre To 5 January 2003
12pm & 2pm 27-28 December 2-4 January
2pm 26,31 December
2pm & 4pm 29 December 5 January
Runs 45 min No interval

TICKETS: 020 8449 0048
www.thebull.org.uk
Review Timothy Ramsden 24 December

Imaginative, visually stimulating storytelling for under 5s.Adult disillusion has its hooks into Christmas. Excitement and a sleepless night of expectation for children maybe, but of course the gleamy new toys will soon lose their shine in young eyes and minds. Yet, though the credit-card busters may be broken or forgotten by the weekend, here's a show which shows how the packaging – with imagination – may provide entertainment of their own.

It's a fine example of theatre for the very young: children who've stopped being babies but are not yet, or only just, out in the full-time world of school (a new, baby-centred type's coming along this spring).

Tiddalick's a frog who, the traditional Australian myth says, had a thirst which grew as he drank till he'd gulped down the world's water. The story's told with pleasant-voice and a smiling demeanour which alters only to express moods in the story, and is never threatening. Marleen Vermeulen's standing ready as we enter, and there is no absolute blackout. The storytelling's direct to audience: all ways of involving the very young and eliminating (as far as is ever possible) anything scary.

Vermeulen accompanies herself with projections and the card-boxes which fill the stage. Coloured transparencies show the new-created world, all green, with animals trotting to the lake to drink - till Tiddalick gives up swimming in water and starts consuming it. From a small green flexi-model he changes suddenly to a bloated, stiff storage jar with large-eyed lid.

And, as the projections change to withered yellow, the card boxes and tubes are transformed into a parliament of animals, dying of thirst and coming together to find a solution. Despite different ideas, the outcome compares favourably with aspects of human 'earth summits' as the eel (a part-uncoiled spiral tube) tickles the sleeping frog into laughter, spewing the world's water out again to lakes and rivers (a symbolic bowl and trough).

Back as his slimmer, mobile self Tiddalick ends proceedings with a friendly sprinkle towards the audience (no umbrellas needed). Buckmaster's inventive production, Vermeulen's appealing performance, intimate yet never patronising, and the uncredited music make a fine under-5s show at The Bull.

Performer: Marleen Vermeulen

Director: Sue Buckmaster

2002-12-25 11:57:30