SWEET MAGIC AT THE LITTLE ANGEL THEATRE

 

 

 

 

This story is from the assigment of a London School of Journalism course I took at the school in London. 

March 28, 2009

 

The beautifully grubby set house was being deconstructed piece by piece while children were watching in wonder. But not to worry: the house in question came back in a new enlarged version later in the show. This was an example where sheer theatre magic rendered the dynamic words of Roald Dahl visible. For a simultaneous learner of the English language like me, this also made a nice opportunity to learn the language and have a bit of fun at the same time.

The puppet show “The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me” is based on a book of the same name by the world-famous author. Billy is a schoolboy who likes sweets. He meets the starving Ladderless Window-cleaning Company set up by a monkey, a pelican, and a giraffe with special dietary needs. They get a window-cleaning job at Lord Hampshire’s estate. While cleaning Hampshire House windows, the company manages to catch the Cobra, a thief with an exceptionally long body. Lord Hampshire rewards Billy and the animals; all of their wishes and needs are fulfilled.

With a simple and non-preachy plot, “The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me” provides for younger readers with lots of rhyming lyrics, and perhaps contains less edge and instead more plays with childhood words themselves. What Tim Kane, the writer, and Ben Glasstone, the composer, did can be understood as an extension of this. They focused on the words: They incorporated into the story not only easy-to-understand extra bits of dialogue but more songs with longer lyrics. It was wonderful to watch: the songs were done expertly and as slick as the Cobra, in Roald Dahl style. A delightful chance to see words come alive. Which I welcomed as a learner of English.

It was also my first encounter with Little Angel Theatre puppets. Beautifully made and not overdone, the rod puppets shone with the human performers under elaborate directing. Children seemed to have fun – and so did I – watching all the animal puppets’ actions such as the Pelly flying around, the Giraffe peeking out, the Giraffe circling the audience with its long, length-adjustable neck in the air. They seemed to find watching the different animals interesting. The Monkey was a special treat: the same actor (Mandy Travis) also played Lord Hampshire. She made both of the characters come alive with a versatile voice.

The smoothly run production had theatrical elements like old furniture being thrown out on to the front with much noises creatively made by the voices of the actors (the loud moments seemed drawn out on purpose, perhaps for similar reasons?), and wonderful, filmic shadow play of the construction of the sweet shop at the end. They were appropriately used not just for eye-pleasing effect but to generate a sense of fun and an atmosphere of friendliness for younger children, who were the main audience.

These children seemed to be having a wonderfully pristine time, dancing to the tunes and shouting “There he is!” when Cobra was eluding the police. Obviously they could understand the show well.

Sometimes the show seemed to lose some of its excitement and some of the children seemed to lose concentration during the run of the play. The original plot had little conflict, so this was somewhat understandable; but I also had a problem with the set. With three horizontal painted bars with houses built on it, it had exciting moments; but most of the time it just felt like looking at a village from one point of view, even with the tried-on devices mentioned above.

On the whole, this production gave some good hints as to what the children can remember most warmly from a storybook adaptation, for parents and adults. The show was also easy to understand and engage with as a language learner. The show’s story seemed to come alive not as “realistic” but in a cheerful, pretty classics sort of way. And once a story is alive, it has its own life.

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me ran in Little Angel Theatre, Islington, until February 2009. I wish it ran again, perhaps this time for English-learning children in Korea? Maybe Lord Hampshire can help this wish come true!