By Finegan
Kruckemeyer
Barking
Gecko Theatre Company
Directed by
Noel Jordan
Designed by
Alicia Clements, Quincy Grant and Trent Suidgeest
Performed
by Ella Hetherington, Jo Morris, Sarah Nelson and Drayton Morley
Subiaco
Arts Centre
Until July
21
 |
| Ella Hetherington, Jo Morris and Sarah Nelson |
The most
important thing is always the telling of the story; children demand imagination
and clarity, and adults deserve it. This is the secret of fables and fairy
stories, and it’s the standard by which theatre for children can best be
judged.
By that
measure, and plenty of others beside, Barking Gecko’s show for these school
holidays, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, was a genuinely enjoyable experience for the parents, grandparents
and stray adults in the audience. For the kids (the play is recommended for
six-year-olds and up), I turned to the infallible wriggle-meter, and the needle
swung well away from “Bored and Restless” to the “Got ‘Em” end of the dial
after a bit of customary early shuffling, and despite a little impatience towards
the end (the play might be just a smidgen long).
As always
with kids, the more their imagination is engaged, the more their interest is
aroused. The fabulous scenes where Morris’s Beatrix’s lighthouse ship, made
from a lantern, a bucket and a whisk, sails away to adventure, and where
Hetherington’s fierce Albienne, full of Joan of Arc-like martial ardour, fights
off the invaders with flour and ice-cream scoops, had them especially gripped
and entranced.
Link here to the complete review in The West Australian
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