Shut Up, Play!

This delightfully bonkers hour follows Japanese performers The Original Tempo and their play without words. Just don’t go in expecting silence for this is a noisy affair, full of musicians making tunes from banging on random items, actors, physical theatre, dance number and some wonderfully inventive visual imagery.
The loose plot involves a girl transported into a pop-up book, full of strange and entertaining characters, who try and encourage her to stay in their world. This idea gives them free range to dazzle the crowd with their abstract imagination and dazzle they do, bringing an entertaining hour of musical numbers involving crisps, audience participation, a fun filled song made from blowing water in a bowl, and a brilliant finale involving a drum loop pedal that with the audience making random noises builds into an epic song.
Using physical comedy and some incredible projections behind sheets it becomes difficult to ascertain what is real and what isn’t, for example in one key moment two characters are behind a backlit sheet, easily they throw marshmallows into each others mouth, when one marshmallow stops mid air and is gobbled by pac-man it has the audience open mouthed in awe.
Fast, fun and very funny this is a fantastic, witty and imaginative production that had the audience grinning from ear to ear throughout.

4/5

Martin Miller