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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Brer Rabbit
Verdict: Children’s show casts a spell
London - Chicken Shed Theatre, Southgate – 26 July to 2 Aug 05
Looking at the audience half-way through a children's show is always a good indication of how it’s going. If the kids are fidgeting, it's going to be a long second half. If they are rapt, the company has a winner.
Fortunately, for the seven-strong cast of Chicken Shed Theatre's latest show, it’s the latter. From the start the flying rabbits, singing racoons, dancing bears and bumptious foxes are wonderfully engaging. They cast a spell that stays unbroken until the final song.
The company is in cracking form, staging a literary adaptation with apparent ease. All the elements of a classic Chicken Shed Theatre show are there: from short song and dance routines to an eclectic musical sound-scape; from the versatile actors to the general bonhomie.
American journalist Joel Chandler Harris published his first story of naughty Brer Rabbit and his victims in 1879. Peter Dowse and Jelena Budimir move the action to a present-day farm outside London. They add a few cheeky comments – ‘Brer Rabbit was given five coins because that's what happens in these kind of stories’ - but retain the plot and theme from about half-a-dozen of the tales. So a new generation is introduced to the tricks and japes of the hanky-panky hare who thinks nothing of pretending to be dead, or nailing a friend to the roof just so he can eat their lunch.
And what a hare is Gavin May. This short, powerhouse of a performer must be on a special kind of carrot juice to sustain the energy which never lets up for a dynamic 60 minutes. Leaping from one toadstool trampoline to another, cartwheeling over Brer Fox, sliding around Brer Racoon and diving into the chicken shed (nice touch that he goes there for sanctuary), the megawatt entertainer delights the young audience with his athletic expertise and ready rapport.
Not to be outdone, the supporting Brers, Alley Cat, Turtle of the Thames, and farm owner Miss Lottie, are all played by fine actors who have obviously done their fair share of stage-work in front of children before. They’re refreshing as one of Miss Lottie's churns of milk, and as sanguine as the sunflowers growing at the back of the stage. All succeed in generating enough energy to power the national grid.
Cast Credits: Miss Lottie - Jelena Budimir. Turtle of the Thames - Emma Cambridge. Brer Bear - Caitriona Carey. Brer Racoon - Rebecca Chapman. Brer Fox - Charlie Kemp. Brer Rabbit - Gavin May. Alley Cat - Greg Williams.
Company Credits: Writers - Peter Dowse & Jelena Budimir. Director - Jelena Budimir. Music - Greg Williams assisted by Caitriona Carey. Lyrics - Paul Morrall. Based on the Brer Rabbit stories by Joel Chandler Harris.
END
(c) Jonathan Lovett 2005
reviewed July 05 / Chicken Shed Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
