Review: Pie-Rat Island, Half Moon Theatre

The Last Baguette theatre company arrives at Half Moon Theatre bringing a bundle of exciting, lively adventure for a young audience aged 2-6 years. Pie-Rat Island is a hybrid piece combining theatrical storytelling and live music with active play, which offers opportunities for children and their adults to join together in imaginative interaction. 

It’s a joy just to enter the room as our duo of Tristan and Lucy set an initially calm environment to start the session. With ukulele music playing and a friendly song that’s complete with supported signing, the children seated on the floor are quickly captivated. The lyrics are welcoming and the audience – including the adults – are drawn into the shared environment beautifully. It’s not long before we meet the third member of the team, Ratty, who is a puppet rat. She’s lots of fun, a cheekily disruptive rodent who invites the children to become Adventurers to join her teammates on a quest to find a treasure island. We then don’t meet her again until the end as the adventure concludes, which is a bit of a shame because she’s clearly popular with the young people.

The hour is then full of perfectly themed tasks and trials for the children to participate in, many of which might be familiar from playgroups or holiday clubs, but which here are enhanced by being framed in a theatrical setting. It’s collaborative and upbeat, yet never overwhelming, with Tristan and Lucy carefully guiding the journey along, while still leaving space for the children to do things in whichever way suits them best. 

There’s really something for every child here, from jumping and pretend swimming to decision making, items to find and funny characters to engage with, including Oliver the Ice Cream Seller and Captain Pollock the Pirate. Throughout, the children are encouraged to be attentive and creative as they negotiate the space together, picking out details on the map they are to follow, considering what to take on the adventure, problem solving and even imagining giant waves and sharks! It’s lots of fun and engages the whole audience fully throughout. Even those who choose at times to sit quietly at the side are never left out, with our hosts taking care to be inclusive. The high point of the show is of course the parachute play, which enables all the adults and children to come together to make the fun happen. 

The Last Baguette really know their stuff when it comes to engaging a young audience, never talking down to them and keeping the pace textured and momentum strong until the very end, when the children are invited to stay and play, which they were keen to do. This is a fun-filled hour of activity that guarantees smiling faces and that would clearly suit a whole variety of sites beyond the theatre.

Created by The Last Baguette

Pie-Rat Island is aimed at ages 2-6 years. Its run at Half Moon Theatre is now finished but you can find tour dates up to Thursday 21 May below.