From the outset, I should say that this is unquestionably a kid’s show. It just depends how you define a kid. For the sake of this review, we’ll have two categories, one on the single figure side of the 11-20 divide, and the other on the seen-better-days side.
A three person performance, The Gruffalo is a short story of the Brothers Grimm variety, following the attempts of a mouse to find food in the deep, dark wood, avoiding encounters with foxes, owls and snakes that might otherwise lead to mouse pie. The crafty rodent makes up a monster, the Gruffalo, with which to scare the predators, but comes unstuck when her imagination comes to life.
The show is set in a small, intimate venue, with the action happening literally inches from the faces of the audience. The performance itself is a heady mix of semi-rhyme, narration and audience participation, with excellent use of sound effects, vocalisations and visual gags that succeed in their difficult task of keeping the younger half of the room in complete concentration.
Highlights include the Latino dancing snake, an upper-middle class fox, and the appearance of the Gruffalo itself, whereupon the whole room descends into chaos, with shouting, laughing, crying, and a genuine fear of the creature from the younger children.
If you are trailing the streets of Edinburgh with pre-teens in desperation of an hours diversion, this is a must see. If you’re a teenager, forget it, but if you’re one of those other kids like me, you probably won’t be the only one winding your lonely way home at 3 am, looking over your shoulder, remembering after you saw the show, that there’s no such thing as a Gruffalo.
5/5
Simon Ferguson
