Reviews

Theatre Festival Family SeasonThe Ark, Dublin Hans Christian Anderson – You Must Be An Angel Hansel and Gretel Songs from Above

The Family Season at this year’s Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival at the Ark was a showcase of Danish theatre for children, with sophisticated storytelling techniques that transcended linguistic and cultural boundaries and went right to the imagination. Gruppe 88’s celebration of Hans Christian Anderson (

Hans Christian Anderson: You Must be an Angel

) was a fairytale feast for the eyes and the senses.

The performance was framed by the squabbles of a pair of harried waiters, arguing over the seating arrangements for Anderson's birthday guests, while around a 10ft-long table familiar fairy tale characters (the Little Match Girl, the Little Mermaid) mingled with mysterious lesser-knowns (Hans Clodhopper, The Naughty Boy). The genius of the production lay in evocation rather than representation, as a series of inventive gadgets stood in for the characters, prompting an awe-inspiring guessing-game among the audience. As cutlery jumped to attention ( The Emperor's New Clothes) or the scent of pine trees wafted through the air ( The Little Fir Tree), the audience was encouraged actively to help to stitch together both Anderson's stories and the narrative of this play.

The young audience seemed to be as surprised as I was on entering the Ark for Gruppe 88's second offering, Hansel and Gretel, where a robed woman and an awkwardly tuxedoed man sat unceremoniously in the darkened theatre. "I thought this was a play!", their bemused, dismayed expressions seemed to say as the traditional storytelling session began. However, it wasn't long before the performers held them spell-bound. Indeed, you could pinpoint the moment of transformation with the chorus of 'Oh my gods!' as a tiny projection of the protagonists appeared on the narrator's draped diaphanous robes.

The success of this performance lay in the simplicity of a tale well told and vivid stage images illuminated with the simplest of special effects. Who knew that nine-year-olds could detect irony in a musician eating marshmallows? Gruppe 88 did, and their work in both performances refused to patronise or play down to their audience. There were a couple of moments in both productions, however, where the work seemed a little too sophisticated for the 7+ age-mark, not so much in presentational style as in content, where the playfulness seemed just a little risqué for the young audience.

It was up to Teater Refleksion and Teater My to entertain younger theatre-goers with Songs From Above, a performance for 2-4 year-olds. Played within a simple white canvas structure, Songs from Aboveengaged with the developing linguistic register of its audience, who were encouraged to identify the various hide-and-seeking players in this object-inspired performance. The chorus of children's voices, delighted with boats, boots, fish, ducks and stars, sang out for the full 30 minutes of the short performance, which perfectly suited the attention-span and curiosity of the toddlers. Apparently The Ark receive a huge demand for theatre for children of this age and the benefits of engagement on the learning capacity of such young children was clear in Songs from Above. Unfortunately, the final show in the Dublin Theatre Festival's Family Season was cancelled, as the scraggly straw-stuffed Mr Muffin ( Goodbye Mr Muffin) was stranded on the high seas somewhere between Ireland and Japan.

However, Mr Muffin has since arrived in Galway for the Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, where family fun and games continue until the end of this week.

Goodbye Mr Muffinis at the Baboró Festival in Galway today. Songs from Above runs at Barboró from October 15th-17th. See baboro.ie