Review: The Truth About Trees, Edfringe 

Apropos Theatre’s The Truth About Trees is the children’s show I was waiting for all week at the Edinburgh Fringe. Written by Alex Zawalnyski, it is a beautifully scripted adventure, pitched perfectly to an audience of ages 5 and up. It’s entertaining, funny and inventive, with an excellent cast – but it additionally contains facts and raises questions that allow children to engage with themes of ecology, encouraging them to have the confidence to speak out about their beliefs, no matter what the adults might say.

We meet a young boy called Alfie, who’s a bit serious, something of a bookworm, and a little anxious. When he finds a book he’s never seen before, his Granddad tells him that the stories in its pages are those of the trees the paper is made from. Alfie knows a lot about trees and their importance in the ecosystem, so when he finds out that a local wood is in danger of being chopped down to make way for a new building development, he sets out both to tell people about how the valuable stories that will be lost and to save the trees.

The team of three actors (Zawalnyski, Morgan Ferguson, and Niamh Blane) deliver the performance with wonderfully playful polish and enthusiasm, using a variety of media to tell the tale, from impeccably paced storytelling to rhythmic rhyming verse, to careful rod puppetry and layered shadow puppetry. There’s plenty of humour to keep everyone entertained, but each of the multiple characters portrayed remains believable, with a neatly defined role to play within the plot. The character of Alfie, in particular, is delightfully written and played by Zawalynski, and feels authentic: he is thoughtful, curious and questioning, demonstrating personal growth and resilience in the face of adversity, which is a really positive message to convey to young people. Alfie may be ‘just a kid’, but he is intelligent, bold and brave with his knowledge; this empowers an audience of children, as it gently challenges them to contest adult preconceptions of what they are capable of and prove themselves. Lovely stuff!

The story mechanism is cleverly set up, blending reality with a touch of magic to excellent effect. It doesn’t overcomplicate things, but imagines a magical way that trees might communicate, which parallels factual knowledge we already have about the workings of root systems and mycelia. This then creates a space in which the audience might perhaps imagine new ways of being in our human relationship with nature, and consider an alternative perspective – that of its relationship with us. 

This production has clearly been developed in respectful conversation with actual children, and it captures the tone of that engagement just perfectly. It’s an absolute breath of fresh air at the Fringe, where all too often children are expected to be happy with fart jokes and bubbles. Who says kids can’t manage important topics like conservation and ecology? Next year is your opportunity to branch out like Apropos has, Fringe creatives!

Produced by Apropos Theatre
Writer: Alex Zawalnyski
Director: Laura Hounsell

The Truth About Trees is aimed at ages 5+ and plays at the Crate, Assembly George Square
until Sunday 24 August.