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Online – Zoom
Expect fantastic fun in this interactive online show, where the audience stars in a bespoke adventure!Summary
Rating
Excellent
Stuck in the house with the kids? All they want to do is watch telly while you’d prefer them exercising and using their imagination? Well here’s the perfect solution to make everyone happy, and give them five minutes of fame in the process!
Creation Theatre’s Up, Up, Up and Away! is an innovative 50 minutes of imagination, music, puppetry and energetic interaction, which has kids and grown-ups joining in in no time.
Before the event, instructions on how to sign in to Zoom are issued, which helps set you up ready for the show. It’s most fun if you and the kids participate fully with all the activities, because then you are literally part of the story and get to see yourself live on screen. Just remember, if you are in your PJs they are going to be visible to everyone else! If you don’t want to be seen you can simply switch off your video and just watch instead.
Once the show starts, using clever tech wizardry, along with good old-fashioned, hand-made props and bundles of imagination, we’re transported to exciting locations. This is a pacey production, there is no time to get bored because the fabulously likeable Apprentice (Ryan Duncan) often needs our help making things happen, sending us off to find parachutes and travel buddies, turning the camera on the audience when requesting suggestions, and creating much bouncing and shouting along in the process. It’s funny, it’s silly, and it comes with excellent musical accompaniment. I was still singing the theme tune an hour after the show!
It seems that some of the audience had already visited a parallel craft video which encouraged them to prepare for the adventure by making goggles, but I didn’t find a direct link to that, and just happened to come across it following the Captain’s (Rowland Stirling) welcome message sent with the ticket. However, even without this link the production as a whole prompts lots of follow-up ideas of things to make and do, because so much of it is handmade. It really encourages possibility! The vintage styling is delightful, again opening up opportunity for discussion with the kids about adventurers, flea circuses and twirly moustaches…
There were a few glitchy moments which might be expected with this kind of interactive format, but largely it ran very smoothly, especially given the ambitious variety of scenarios visited, so hats off to the company for that. All in all this is great fun, sending you off smiling with a goody bag of possible creativity for the day ahead!
Written by: George Rennie
Dramaturg by: Mark Collier
Music Composed and Performed by: Jessica Dives
Puppet Animation: Ryan Duncan
Background Animation and Design: Alex Wood and Wilson Smith
Creative Development Producer: Katy Withers
Executive Producer: Grace Alexander-Scott
Booking link: www.creationtheatre.co.uk/whats-on/up-and-away/
Booking until: This show has completed its current run.
