All Join In and Other Stories Published Monday 23 May 2011 at 10:26 by Susan Elkin

Based on four books by the illustrator Quentin Blake, this enjoyable, tuneful, imaginative show features lots of songs performed by five highly accomplished actor-musicians - most of whom are also puppeteers - and not much dialogue or narrative. 

Thus we get Charlie Folorunsho as a colourful, rueful Mr Magnolia who has only one boot, and Gilbert Taylor and the extraordinarily versatile Mandy Travis as a pair of resistant young owls who have to be taught to hoot.

Other highlights include Travis as Mrs Armitage riding her gradually enhanced bicycle and the lovely folksy ensemble singing in the duck song. The Stomp-type sequence in the kitchen with pans and the ballet duet by a boot and a shoe are fun, too.

The musical instruments add a lot to this show. Charlotte Workman, a fine and very expressive actor, almost develops her cello into another character. Christopher Chamberlain is a fine fiddler and banjo player and the mercurial, boyish, lithe Taylor is good on trombone and banjo. Travis is a strong saxophonist and penny whistler and her unexpected spoon playing is a rhythmic tour de force.

When artwork is as instantly recognisable as Blake’s, it can’t be easy to translate it visually to the stage, but Laura McEwen’s designs make inspired use of Blake-style small flats and various items of stage business.

This is a most appealing piece of theatre for four to seven-year-olds, many of whom were joining in enthusiastically as encouraged by the cast - and the show’s title.

Production information By: Quentin Blake, adapted by Ben Glasstone (also music and additional lyrics), Jonathan Lloyd, Roman Stefanski (who also directs)
Management: Polka Theatre
Cast: Charlie Folorunsho, Gilbert Taylor, Charlotte Workman, Christopher Chamberlain, Mandy Travis

Following a successful gala night at The Polka Theatre, I am looking forward to the summer run of ALL JOIN IN. Pictured here with the cat - Brian.

Photo by R.Workman from The Polka Webpage.

OSCAR & CAT

Looking forward to a week of tech at The Polka - I am very happy to be part of the summer season with a very talented cast of actor musicians and crew.  Have a look at a video of our rehearsals here and last weeks blog (written by Gilbert Taylor) here.

It was a nice surprise to see that The Minack Theatre web designers have used a picture from our musical adaptation of Gulliver's Travels as one of their few slideshow images on their home page. It was a very colourful production at The Minack in 2008 with some fantastic costumes (designed by Jill "Wiggy" Wilson). It was a privilege to perform there, verging on spiritual - well, what else can you call it when you are saying the line "an eclipse, an eclipse" and a cloud crosses the path of the moon on cue.  Oh - and the rainbow bowing to the ocean as the opening chords echoed up the mountain. Brought back some good memories. 

Nicky has spent the weekend in Blackpool in her new role as a marketing manager for Stagescripts - returning with some very positive news that amateur societies are starting to realise that there is no such thing as a "bankable" show at the moment and that now is as good a time as any to take the plunge and do something different - which is what the Stagescripts catalogue is all about - offering new challenges to production companies (both professional and amateur) and new material to audiences. It is great to be part of a company that recognises that the gap between professional and amateur theatre is not as wide as some might think. If anything, the resources available are far greater in the amateur circuit - we "professionals" consider a cast of 10 to be enormous - Gulliver's Travels at The Minack had a cast of 40 plus a 10 piece orchestra and who knows how many crew -  it just needs a concerted effort for amateur societies to raise the bar - start choosing new material again -  and surprise us all with the scale achievable. It was great to hear about Michael Sheen's Mysteries, lasting 72 hours and involving 1000's of people. The idea that we all want to see the same stuff, same formula over and over again is nonsense - playing safe slowly and surely pushes audiences away. The audience needs new material, even if it is a reshaping of existing works and ideas.  And the writers that are yet to force their way through those narrow openings to recognition could do worse than write for the amateur market, their local community.
 
 The RSC have realised this too and their recent inspiration - The Open Stages project -  is a great way of uniting people nationally in being inventive and producing quality theatre around a Shakespearian theme. Because of this initiative, a local amateur company near us is making the brave effort to mount a production of my new musical, Olympus.  The plan - a hundred strong children's chorus, 15 named roles and an extra 20 ensemble (at the least.) Throw in a community/school aged orchestra, a yet to be confirmed space (preferably large) and you have a new piece of theatre uniting the Croydon community in a project for 2012. I hope they can pull it off -  professionally it would never happen at the moment - cast too big, not branded, no money available, unknown writer - recession. Let's see what the "amateurs" can do!

Link to The Minack Website here - looks like a fantastic program this year.