Lyn Gardner called it a "five minute wonder" and she wasn't belittling it. Performed inside a special black box, and running thirty times a day, The Incredible Book Eating Boy might be short and sweet, but Bootworks Theatre are taking it out for a long run.
Rather like Ian Smith's solo of exquisite misery, this boy isn't all about the show, but the bits usually left outside. The audience, while waiting for their slot, can poke about in the book guzzling youngster's bedroom and check out the mechanics of the performance from outide. Plus there is a special colouring pack, no doubt to keep the critics entertained.
The Incredible Book Eating Boy sits in an interesting place: based on a children's book by Oliver Jeffers, it does fit with those super-sized productions of Peppa Pig. However, where they are soulless exercises in merchandise and spectacle, The Incredible Book Eating Boy matches the more interesting, intimate atmosphere of the one-to-one experience. A mash up of live actor, projection and animation (not just for kids, but this time...), it involves a boy who literally devours books to get smart. Inevitably, gulping down paper turns out not toe be the smartest idea.
James Baker, Co-Artistic Director at Bootworks Theatre sees the piece within the legacy of old fashioned parenting. “Our team have fond memories of sharing bedtime stories with our parents - losing ourselves in picture books, and then later, longer fictions," he says. "We wanted to make a theatre show that retains a sense of the intimacy and magic of a parent sharing a story with their child. The show is intended as a catalyst; a means for parents and children to feel excited about reading, sharing and imagining.”
After BFW's superb analysis of the tyranny of children's theatre, The Incredible Book Eating Boy seems to offer the qualities that he suggested as an alternative: intimacy, shared by parent and adult and, mercifully, short.
9 Feb 2013 SHERINGHAM, Norfolk, Sheringham Little Theatre
18 Feb 2013 MAIDENHEAD, Berks, Norden Farm Centre for the Arts www.nordenfarm.org
21 Feb 2013 PORTSMOUTH, Hants, Groundlings Theatre www.groundlings.co.uk
23 Feb 2013 NEWPORT, Isle of Wight, Quay Arts www.quayarts.org
16 March 2013 HEDGE END, Hants, The Berry Theatre www.theberrytheatre.co.uk
12 April 2013 OXFORD, Playhouse www.oxfordplayhouse.com/
30 May 2013 DIDCOT, Berks, Cornerstone www.cornerstone-arts.org
1 June 2013 BORDON, Hants, The Phoenix www.phoenixarts.co.uk
15 June 2013 NEWBURY, Berks, Corn Exchange www.cornexchangenew.com
22 June 2013 HAVANT, Hants, The Spring www.thespring.co.uk
29 June 2013 CANTERBURY, Kent, Gulbenkian Theatre www.kent.ac.uk/gulbenkian
No comments :
Post a Comment