| A huge animated early Christmas card |
At Hijinx Theatre |
| Hijinx/Odyssey Theatre- Silent Night , WMC/Weston Studio , December 3, 2010 |
It’s nearing Christmas in Cardiff and it’s time for the wonderful Odyssey Theatre once more. The production, with its bright red costumes and multi coloured stained glass church windows and with the high spirited adventure they invited us to share with them, was a huge animated early Christmas card. Once again it was a great romp but this time writer and director Gaynor Lougher had given her dynamic cast a clear story line for them all to get to grips with and get to grips with it they did – with great aplomb and considerable accomplishment.As ever on these occasions eclectic musical accompaniment was provided with great spirit and sensitivity by students from The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under the top class direction of tutor Paula Gardiner and the mice, or they might have been rats, during the day attended Meadowbank Special School. It did look as if we might have been in Pied Piper land but the people of wherever we were seemed to like these little tykes with their pink ears and long tales. As they squeaked their way back and forth across the stage the villagers seemed quite happy to feed them sweet and other treats. Judging by the cocked hats and multi-layered skirts we were somewhere in the eighteenth century but no one was counting as the mice/rats morphed into village children and took their places in the unhappy division between two families a la Romeo and Juliet. A line was drawn down the middle of the stage and no one would dare to cross it! For those who may not know of Odyssey Theatre it was established in 1999 by Hijinx Theatre as a company for young people with learning difficulties. Each year since they have presented these ever developing and unique productions. It was a big blow to Hijinx and to the many remote village halls throughout the UK where their productions were always received with enormous enthusiasm that The Arts Council of Wales recently withdrew its funding for this work, requiring the company to focus their work more on adults with learning difficulties. Certainly there is no one better equipped to do this as this beautiful and warm hearted production illustrates. A great deal of pantomime banter speeds from one side of the stage to the other A blue silk river unfurled across the stage, most of the swimmers got safely to the other side. ‘Juliet’ gave birth but ‘Romeo’ was missing, possible drowning in the river but the powerfully muscled village blacksmith rescued the young man from the thrashing waters; he was reunited with his pretty young wife and child. Soon, after the audience singing and signing Silent Night with a very sweetly sung sole from one of the rats, everything ended in a joyous uproar. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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