National Theatre of Scotland Ensemble, North Edinburgh Arts Centre and touring 2006

Gobbo

YOU KNOW you’re in for a good time the moment you step inside the theatre. Instead of a stage, the room is laid out with tables. There are silver streamers cascading from the ceiling, a glitter ball spinning and a table full of tawdry looking raffle prizes.

The scene is set for a wild children’s party which, in the more ribald sequences of David Greig’s modern fairytale, is exactly what we get. If excessive flatulence, grape-throwing and inappropriate Highland dancing sound too frivolous for you and your children, then steer clear of Gobbo in The Adventure of Gobbo and the Watchmaker.

If, on the other hand, you hunger for irreverence, theatrical imagination, songs, jokes and an honestly told story of high adventure on the islands of Skye and Rum, you should do everything you can to see this exuberant production by Wils Wilson for the NTS Ensemble.

The mesmerised faces of the five-year-olds in the audience will tell you all you need to know about how compellingly Greig’s story is told by the seven actors. But, as my nine-year-old and I agree, ‘Gobbo’ is a genuine family show that will send everyone out with a grin on their face.

Based on an epic story first invented by Greig for his own children, ‘Gobbo’ is about a goblin whose primary characteristic is his hatred of adventures. He’d have settled for a quiet life were it not for his weakness for raw rhubarb and the persuasiveness of his adventure-loving friend, Globkin.

Before he knows it, he’s battling waterfalls in a leaky canoe, being rescued by a spirit eagle and facing the wrath of rock goblins on Rum. Will the intrepid Pixie Pumpkin be able to rescue them without falling into the clutches of the heartless clockmaker, her robot baby and ability to stop time?

In other hands, this material would make a suitably gripping action adventure, but Greig and Wilson take it to another level. With the playfulness of children, the actors enter into a big game of make-believe.

They’re forever interrupting the action because they can’t remember the story, need help telling it, or have to get away for another appointment. At the same time, with the earnestness of children, they tell their tale with utter conviction – even when they’re dressing up in tablecloths or making scary black birds with umbrellas.

The result is at once charming and cheeky, absorbing and funny – the kind of children’s show that makes you wish all theatre could be like. See it at all costs.

(Gobbo can be seen at Ballachulish Village Hall, 13 September; MacPhail Centre, Ullapool, 16 September; Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Skye, 20 September; Victoria Hall, Cromarty, 23 September; Craigmonie Centre, Drumnadrochit, 30 September, with additional dates in the Northeast and Borders)

© Mark Fisher, 2006

Links

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