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The Giant’s Loo Roll
Coventry Belgrade
**** IF you start with a loo roll you are
within a wipe or so of a bum which puts you on a winner with a young
audience where boldily functions are a banker when it comes to humour. It is indubitable fact
which has not been lost on Nicholas Allan who has given us
The Magic Lavatory,
The Queen's Knickers,
Where Willy Went
and Father Christmas Needs a Wee
as well as the giant’s paper requirement among
his other children’s books. Not that it is all about bums in this lively tale
from Talegate Theatre, with James Worthington and Rhiannon Moushall
playing all the parts from the pinstriped paper factory owner, looking
remarkably like Sir Les Patterson’s long lost cousin, to a by gum,
ecky-thump farmer – complete with The tale is simple; the town is dying. The paper
mill has run out of paper and is closing down, the tailor’s shop is
going bust because no one is working so can’t afford to buy and there is
a bleak future unfolding until . . . a giant’s loo roll appears. So what can you do with miles and miles of loo
paper and that is the tale as the roll . . . rolls around town, saving
businesses and the paper mill until finally, what is left, is returned
to the giant who needs it to wipe his . . . and how the kids loved that.
At times my five-year-old grandson, a seasoned
theatregoer, was rolling with laughter at times, while his brother, on
his first theatre visit, aged 10 months, was fascinated in wide eyed
wonder by the whole thing. The pair had plenty of audience participation
from the very start, bringing four children on stage, as well as an
unfortunate dad volunteered reluctantly; we had Rhiannon, as a French
artist, running around the aisles with a large paint brush and paint
pot, spraying the audience with water – something children love. Best of all the inflatable giant loo roll, a
truly huge affair was pushed into the audience to bounce around over
heads creating lots of excitement. Much was aimed at younger children, simple and
daft, like teacher trying to catch out a naughty schoolgirl who was
trying to throw a paper aeroplane, which children found hilarious, songs
were simple and repetitive, easy for the audience to sing and clap
along, while the story was easy to follow. There were odd lines as well for parents
including a lovely line about National curriculumisation which was so
far above the children’s’ heads it might as well have been in space. The show is fast moving with a good set and some
rapid and colourful costume changes and ending on what we might call a
bum note, is a guaranteed success with kids. Roger Clarke 02-06-16
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singing sheep, a teacher and pupil, an artist and a tailor with a natty
range of paper knickers.