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LAT Children’s Puppet Festival
An imaginary friend jumps off the page to help Kit settle in to his new home.
Summary
Rating
Good
A little boy named Kit has relocating with his mum to the city and moved into a new house. He has had to leave behind the village he knows so well and is starting at a new school. His world is packed in cases and boxes, and his room smells weird. Everything is unfamiliar and strange. Kit takes refuge in his imagination, drawing a character called Minny Stynker, who comes off the page and takes him on exciting adventures.
This show is performed with energetic enthusiasm by Tomasin Cuthbert (also the writer) and Ricardo Ventura. The top and tail of the production particularly are lots of fun, with the duo effectively using paper puppets to encourage the audience to join in: the kids love it! Here, Minny playfully sticks her tongue out to cheekily lick people, blow a raspberry or just pull a ridiculous face.
The story itself offers some important themes for children to consider or relate to. There are ideas of loneliness, imaginary friendships and the difficulty of meeting new people. There’s a possible suggestion the pair might be refugees as Kit’s dad is said to be left behind, and Kit himself has a strong European accent.
However, as the tale progresses it gets somewhat complicated – visually diverse, with a lot to take in. Kit has a back story and a new home. There are projected scribbles, with an imaginary friend first hidden amongst them, then manifested in multiple different forms in several locations. A number of minor characters are introduced, which is more to keep track of.
We don’t get much pause for breath. Segueing between scenes, there’s a relentless amount of running around frantically. The action might benefit from being punctuated more neatly, to give both the narrative and the characters clarity, thus allowing us time to reflect on the many things happening to Kit and his emotional responses. Tom Ball’s lovely musical composition could perhaps be used more prominently to help with this.
The design work is appealing, if sometimes a little hit and miss. A clever set transforms packing boxes and suitcases, opening them up or converting them to make new props and spaces, and an interesting blend of video and live performance creates possibility, allowing the characters to set off into space, or visit a forest. Then there’s a large array of puppets, quite varied in style and function. Minny herself begins as a black and white sketch on a page, simply lifted and manipulated. Clearly this links in to Kit’s creativity coming to life, and to paper play, but she lacks depth in this format – as just a sheet of paper waving around – and to really come alive she might benefit from having a solid, 3D option. It would be good to see some of that fab direct interaction from the pre- and post-show activities built into the main performance too.
There are some lovely lighting moments from Joe Price, which are used to give the tale evocative atmospheres and contrast. Again, plus points such as these could be used advantageously to help structure the story segments more distinctly.
There really are lots of great features to this show, and it’s an entertaining hour of storytelling, but just now it feels a bit like it’s still a work in progress. However, with some tidying up and hopefully playing to its strengths in the audience interactions, it’s certainly got potential to develop and get those creative kids crafting companions and adventures of their own!
Directed by: Stephanie Kempson
Design by: Tomasin Cuthbert
Based on a Picture book by: Tomasin Cuthbert
Composed by: Tom Ball
Projection Design and Animation by: Christopher Harrisson
Lighting Design by: Joe Price
Artistic Director/Lead Producer: Tomasin Cuthbert
Co-Produced by: Sarah White
Produced by: Soap Soup Theatre Company
Minny Stynker is aimed at ages 3-8 and runs at the Little Angel Theatre until 18th August. Further information and booking are available here.
The LAT Children’s Puppet Festival runs until 1st September. More information can be found here.
