Theatre / Reviews
Review: Magic Elves, Bristol Old Vic studio
In a twist on the classic tale of The Elves and the Shoemaker, the Bristol Old Vic’s Christmas show for younger audiences this year features a discount shoe shop and body-popping magic elves that could have come straight from 2001 A Space Odyssey with added sparkle.
It’s that added sparkle that consistently makes the Christmas shows for both adults and children at the Old Vic so special.
While upstairs in the main theatre kids big and small were battling against pirates in Swallows & Amazons, downstairs in the studio there was a mass participation dance on the multi-coloured stage by little theatre-goers many of who had been itching to join the performers from when the lights first went dark.
A show featuring Kid Carpet couldn’t possibly not feature a dance anyway – an integral part of his previous children’s shows Noisy Animals and Blast Off and which here signaled that his shoe shop had been saved thanks to a pair of elves and a happy bear, princesses and queen all with snazzy new footwear.
Isabelle Cressy and Chris Farish are kept busy as elves and other assorted characters, mostly bringing delight to the young theatre-goers even if there were a few tears from the very littlest in the audience.
My three-and-three-quarter-year-old was mostly enraptured throughout, high-fiving elves and Kid Carpet on their way around the stage, collecting the shiny paper that fell from the ceiling and pulling off some mighty fine dance moves.
Director Miranda Cromwell has pulled off the canny trick of always having something happening on the stage, with the three actors able to respond to whatever this most fickle of crowds might throw at them – sometimes literally.
Cressy and Farish are two accomplished dancers, and athletically propel themselves around Ruby Spencer Pugh’s splendidly unsubtle set dominated by stacks of shoe boxes, all the while soundtracked by Kid Carpet’s trademark plinky-plonky music.
Prepare for some serious sparkle in this magical production.
Magic Elves is at Bristol Old Vic until January 3. For tickets and more information, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk/themagicelves.html.
Photos by Paul Blakemore
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
