Show is perfect for tiny tots (From Salisbury Journal)

Show is perfect for tiny tots

4:50pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Entertainments

NOWADAYS, children’s theatre is about so much more than an annual trip to the pantomime.

Many well-loved picture books have made the leap from page to stage and there is no shortage of keen young theatre goers and parents wanting to see the results.

Performances of Oliver Jeffers’ The Way Back Home at Salisbury Playhouse’s Salberg Studio on Friday and Saturday were sold out.

The cast of two told this simple yet heart-warming story about a boy who flies his aeroplane to the moon where he meets a Martian suffering from a case of broken spaceship.

After striking up a friendship they both try to help each other to get home.

With an aeroplane and spaceship whizzing around the stage and plenty of songs, music and chances to join in, there was plenty to keep the young audience riveted.

Some clever lighting effects and use of the set offered plenty of surprises and although the plot doesn’t stand up to the rigorous scrutiny of an enquiring five-year-old, the story is easy for tiny tots to follow.

Performers Charlotte Cooper and Adam Carpenter treated the story with a childlike delight and their enthusiasm and energy made this an enjoyable and nicely paced show that had its young audience members full of chatter about planes, aliens and the moon.

The Way Back Home is the first of several children’s shows coming to the playhouse this spring.

Classic children’s literature such as The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Hare and the Tortoise are included in the programme alongside new shows like the Olympicsinspired Great Gran’s Great Games, Splosh and Wolf Tales which are part of the Theatre Fest West season.

Jill Harding