Theatre
Child's play that comes up trumps
Published 13 November 2006
When children's theatre breaks the rules it is a refreshing alternative
The Mouse Queen Unicorn Theatre, London SE1
Disney on Ice Princess Classics Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield
Arriving for The Mouse Queen with Honey, my small daughter, I thought about the rare pleasure of going to the theatre at 10.15 in the morning. Of course, children's theatre has none of our adult conventions anyway. Characters disappear into puffs of smoke, song and dance turns up wherever, and stories ride on unlikely plot events.
The Mouse Queen is no exception; it is ostensibly a puppet show, but also one with a lot of live action, superb jazz music from a crazy on-stage band, the odd moral guideline and some scary moments. We were also informed that it's a show about "courage, compassion, power and greed". Just what one needs before noon.
The show takes its inspiration from an Aesop fable about the little mouse helping out the big bad lion. Most of the time Tilly Mouse, our heroine, is on stage she is a beautifully carved wooden puppet (from the atelier of puppet mastercraftsman Peter O'Rourke), but she is sometimes a silhouette, and is also, at times, embodied in an actor in a large yellow dress.
She goes on a big adventure into the deep dark jungle, where she meets a variety of non-puppet animals. In fact, they are a cast of seven adults who act, sing, and play an array of instruments on-stage, with astounding versatility; Monkey plays the sax and spoons, Fox the harmonium, Rabbit the cello and so on. Everything's very foot-tapping until the moment when Tilly meets Leonard, the nasty King of the Jungle. He threatens to eat her. Then he threatens to eat everyone in the audience. He even prowls out into the auditorium to make his plan quite believable. "He's only joking," I said to Honey (four). "Yeah," she quavered, plainly unconvinced.
Eventually, Leonard ends up going to the city where he has a terrible time at the hands of an Italian proprietor of a greasy-spoon café, culminating in forced tooth/claw removal. All the action is jollied along by some hilarious songs such as "Mice are Nice" and "People Turn to Cheese", which has this most brilliant fromage-inspired chorus without being cheesy (sorry): "What's so bad it won't get better,/with a little bit of feta or a chunk of Cheddar?/In troubled times like these,/people turn to cheese." The O'Rourke puppets, with their dramatically carved faces and beautifully modelled hands, simply breathe with life, and the performers are amusing without being patronising.
Leonard is finally rescued from the city dump by Tilly who, on their return to the jungle, is honoured by becoming the Mouse Queen.
All of which rather mirrors the history of this delightful show. Starting life at the Little Angel Theatre, the puppet specialists in Islington, it has since played in New York, appropriately enough opposite the theatre with The Lion King. And it goes on to Hampstead Theatre after its run here at the Unicorn, the wonderful children's theatre at London Bridge, which has such child-friendly elements as low handrails on the stairs, and adult-friendly elements such as limited marketing opportunities.
If only the same could be said for Disney on Ice. Since Honey is an ardent Disney princess fan, I took her and her elder sister to join several thousand other Snow Whites for the Princess Classics juggernaut currently raking it in, sorry, skating around the country on tour.
On arrival, we somehow managed to purchase two £3 Cinderella spinning torches, a £13 Official Photograph showing my daughters in a teapot, plus a pink £5 heart-shaped balloon before I insisted, nearly weeping, that we all take our seats.
And then the show unfolded in typical Disney style: immaculate, slick, unsurprising but rather sweet. For a £20 ticket, you get all the Princess stories rolled into one great wand-waving dream. I must admit I did start sobbing when Snow White was resurrected by Prince Charming. Maybe it was all the hassle we had to go through before sitting down.
For further info and booking details visit www.unicorntheatre.com
Pick of the week
Spamalot
Palace Theatre, London W1
Wholeheartedly silly riff on the Arthur legend, via Monty Python.
Porgy and Bess
Savoy Theatre, London WC2
Trevor Nunn directs Gershwin's masterpiece with Musical, rather than Opera, as his guiding star.
Thatcher the Musical!
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
A cast of ten women "romp" through the life of the Iron Lady, if you can imagine such a thing.
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