Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, 23 February, 2008, and touring

Heelie-Go-Leerie

IN SHOWS such as Molly Whuppie, Wee Witches and Green Whale, Licketyspit has quickly earned a reputation as one of Scotland’s most polished children’s theatre companies. Its work is typically playful, athletic and imaginative. Those qualities are all present in its latest production, Heelie-go-leerie (Head Over Heels), a playground fantasy for a broad age range from three-and-up, but they are undermined by a script that jumps about so much it’s like you’re watching edited highlights of half-a-dozen plays.

First of all there’s the mime sequence in which the three actors go through an early morning routine from breakfast to school, repeating the actions ever more frenetically. With that out of the way, it’s time to remove the dust cloths and reveal Ali Maclaurin’s excellent set, a rubbish tip adventure playground of discarded door frames, tubes and washing machines. There’s a funny routine in which the actors emerge limb by limb, teasing us with each movement.

In turn, they discard that idea for the play proper which appears to be about a girl called Bella with an uncanny gift for making up rhymes. Nothing much comes of that, however, because before long Bella is joining Kaiser and Taz in a game of dragon hunting. You’d say this is where the story’s heart lay if it wasn’t for a nagging suspicion that Heelie-go-leerie is making some kind of environmental point: in a sci-fi twist, the children’s games take place beneath a protective ceiling shielding them from impenetrable smoke.

The theme linking these disparate elements in director Virginia Radcliffe’s play is the power of creativity, the children repeatedly commenting on each other’s abilities to rhyme and fantasise, their scepticism silenced by the appearance of a glorious Chinese dragon at the end.

There are three problems with the approach, however. First, the young audience needs no lessons in how to be creative: making stuff up comes naturally. Second, it is very disruptive to the storyline when the characters stop to question whether what is happening is real or not. And third, the uncertainty about which story is central keeps us emotionally distanced from the events.

If children are unlikely to be engaged with the postmodern conceit of a play about playing, they will be engaged by the winning performances of Christine Devaney (substituting at the last minute for an injured Annie Grace and doing a remarkable job at it), John MacAulay and Paul Chaal, all of whom are bright, entertaining and physically focused.

Heelie-go-leerie will play at Perth Theatre (29 February-1 March), Macphail Centre, Ullapool (12 March), Talla Nan Rois, Kingussie (13 March), Universal Hall, Findhorn (15 March), Cairndow Village Hall (16 March), Strathpeffer Pavilion (6-7 April).

© Mark Fisher, 2008

Links

• Mark Fisher’s Scottish Theatre Blog
• Licketyspit