Review: The Colour of Impossible Things, Kelford School

The Colour of Impossible Things is a Blanket Fort Club show co-created with students from the Nexus Multi-Academy Trust. The Trust is a specialist chain of 16 Special Educational Needs (SEND) schools in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Today’s performance was at one of these, Kelford School.

Jared More, Charlie Lim and Isabella Vaughan play a science teacher, an English teacher and a PE teacher at Athens Academy. They are taking their pupils on a school trip to see ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ but mysteriously get locked in the school. The magic of the play somehow still finds them. 

The actors mingle with the students as they arrive, talking informally with them to create a relationship and foster engagement. Initial physical comedy is very well received. The actors use a repetitive counting rhyme to get the children’s attention. It seems to cause the ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ poster to momentarily light up. Most of the students see it and point it out vocally. Now the magic begins, and there’s an ethereal hum as wall bars come forward and trees are attached. Green lighting adds to the mystery and some students excitedly say ‘it’s a forest!’ Lit-up fluffy balls become the forest fairies, which come among the students for them to see and touch. The actors make sure no student is left out.

Once the scene is set, More and Vaughan become Oberon and Titania, using masks to represent them, as Shakespeare’s play begins. The company manages to tell the story very simply, but actually leaves very little out! When Shakespeare’s dialogue is used, some of the student engagement wavers, but it is back instantly when the four lovers appear as puppets walking among them. As night falls in the forest, a blue net with stars attached wafts through the students. The tactile presentation intrigues them. As the fairies sing a lullaby, one student near me joins in and delightfully continues to sing the exact melody he just heard. 

Volunteer students become the wall, moonshine and the lion. When the lion is instructed to roar, they all spontaneously roar. And when Bottom appears with the ass’s head, they roar with laughter. The students are mesmerised as the story of the four lovers is presented on a backlit screen. One of them tentatively peeps behind the screen to see how it’s done. As Oberon reverses the spell, Bottom wakes up, and the teachers reappear. Everyone has been dreaming, and the locked door opens again.

To complement the piece, each student has a ‘Forest Observation Pack’ full of sensory stimulation, including a hidden message revealed by UV light that delights all the students. Finally, dappled, draped fabric becomes a walkway that the beguiled students travel through to experience sounds, smells, lights and The Colour of Impossible Things.

This is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare for these students. There is enough of the original dialogue to keep the authenticity, but also an abundance of interaction to create a stimulating first experience. As I was leaving, one of the school staff said that some of those children were the quietest and most engaged he had ever seen them.

Created by The Blanket Fort Club
Directed by George Stone 
Immersive Technologist & Sound Design by Kingsley Ash
Set & Costumes Designed by Kevin Jenkins
Props & Puppets made by India Smith
Set made by Jack Poole

The Colour Of Impossible Things has completed its performance at Kelford School