The Elmer Adventure
David McKee
Directed by Toby Mitchell
Tall Stories
Blackheath Halls and touring
Star rating 3.5
Photography by Charlie Flint
Over the years I have seen many of these sixty minute shows based on memorable, colourful books for young children and their grown-ups. This one is quite clever, lexically unpatronising and comes with commendably clear diction from three young actors. In short it ticks most of the boxes and is a pretty decent show of its type.
One of the “boxes” is a gently understated message about otherness and inclusion because, since he’s famously a patchwork elephant, Elmer is rather different from the rest of the herd, who are grey and grumpy. And that point is subtly reinforced by the casting of the excellent Frankie Turton who is an ambulatory wheelchair user, a strong singer and a powerful personality.
The framing device gives us three young people, friends since primary school visiting a jungle (colourful set and costumes by Amanda Mascarenhas) in search of Elmer. So it’s a quest during which they pass the time by acting out Elmer stories like children in a playground. And eventually, of course, at the eleventh hour, their search comes good with a wonderful puppet (Yvonne Stone) and this hardened critic had to swallow a lump in her throat.
Along the way there are some chirpy songs (Matthew Floyd Jones) one of which is so catchy, and reprised so often, that children were singing it as they left the auditorium and I heard another at the bus stop afterwards. Inevitably the music is mostly backing track but Amelia Gabriel is an unusually accomplished guitarist and her skills are used to good effect. Rob Astillo (who also plays guitar) is a fine foil to the two girls often pretending reluctance to join in. All three play well off each other especially in the songs. We also get some pantomimic stage business with pistols, balloons and things appearing upstage behind the action all of which seems to go down well enough with the young audience.
These three actors are full of smiles and that vital knack of engaging and involving the audience. In a show of this type, stage presence matters more than nuanced acting or award-winning singing although, obviously characters have to be convincing and singing tuneful and incisive. And this production achieves that.
