Review: A World Elsewhere, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Since before Shakespeare’s Globe was even opened, theatre for children has been at the heart of its work. The education department, founded in 1989, was a key focus for Sam Wanamaker, and its mission to enrich children with curiosity and excite them with the power of performance continues to this day. This season, Splendid Productions’ A World Elsewhere, written by the dream team of Kerry Frampton & Ben Hales, celebrates this fabulous intention with an energetically interactive, silly and superbly performed show that empowers its young audience to create.

The phrase “a world elsewhere” is from Coriolanus, and here it’s used to describe the incredible space that is a child’s imagination. Rose Revitt’s bold stage design blankets the walls of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse with items suggesting exploration and active young minds: a skull sculpted from cardboard; papers and pictures; stars and stories hanging from chandeliers. 

Even before the show proper starts, three actors chat with the audience, crafting a performance space that extends beyond the stage into the minds of everyone in the room. The characters are waiting for Cass (Kyle Ndukuba) to arrive. He’s the boy whose imagination we’re in, and we’re all his imaginary friends. Sarah (Kerry Frampton) is a flamboyant classical actress, prone to over-enunciation and dramatic gesture. She’s accompanied by badass Cobweb (Tanvi Virmani), the fairy from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, along with Big Guy (Zachary Willis), a huge Action Man figure, brilliant at wrestling but vulnerable on occasion. As fictional characters, they delight in persuading the audience to devise stories and act out scenarios. It’s an absolute hoot and joyfully playful, bringing shrieks of laughter and hugely enthusiastic responses, while equipping youngsters with techniques to imagine and organically create the fun themselves. 

The flow of the play is quite open, allowing for endless improvisation and reinvention, but it’s anchored with marked dramatic moments that provide structure. Although there are some dark elements to the plot, the script reassuringly reminds us that imagination and theatre are safe spaces in which to explore difficult real-world problems: a resource being whittled away in curricula across the UK as we speak. Cass, we learn, is at that recognisably difficult age when childhood behaviours are challenged, and anxiety arises. The play is careful not to overwork this idea, planting facts then allowing the audience to fill out the detail. However, the visualisation of his struggle in the form of Naomi Oppenheim’s menacing shadow monster is an absolute wow! (Think Ocean at the End of the Lane meets Spirited Away’s No Face.) 

Children’s show it may be, but no corners are cut in this production. Lucy Cuthbertson’s sharp direction is exhilarating, making inventive use of the auditorium, with smoking trapdoors and actors clambering across the surprised audience. The cast are all polished physical performers, whether enacting comic slapstick or thrilling fight scenes choreographed by the king of stage combat, Kevin McCurdy. They offer a masterclass in audience participation, as only Globe actors can: respectful, attentive and totally in control of wherever the mayhem zips. Frampton is undoubtedly the funniest woman on the planet, and has the audience exploding with laughter. Rarely have I seen such an engaged, enthusiastic audience. Throughout, excellent live music and sound effects (Hales & Rosie Bergonzi) add another vibrant level to the already dynamic storytelling. 

A World Elsewhere is a terrific show for a family treat, appealing across all age groups. It’s ridiculous, thrilling and empowering all at once, creating a room filled with possibility and wonder. And laughter aside, its message that we each have our own story to proudly claim and constantly reinvent is an urgent and truly powerful one.

Produced by Splendid Productions & Shakespeare’s Globe
Musical Director/Percussion: Rosie Bergonzi
Additional Direction/Co-Composer/Co-Writer: Kerry Frampton
Casting Director: Alice Walters
Co-Composer/Co-Writer: Ben Hales
Costume Supervisor: Caroline Stevens
Designer: Rose Revitt
Director: Lucy Cuthbertson
Fight Director: Kevin McCurdy
Movement Director: Kate Webster
New Work Associate: Guy Jones
Props Supervisor: Gabe Gilmour
Puppetry Consultant: Naomi Oppenheim

A World Elsewhere is aimed at ages 5+ and plays at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe until Sunday 30 August