Welcome to Neverland, a place between waking and sleeping, where channelling your inner Peter Pan will help the most uptight of grown-ups rediscover fun.
Five strangers – seriously corporate, suit-wearing, tax-paying, very grown-up grown ups – find themselves in a twilight zone of night-lights and night-stands. It’s a world where paper planes spill out of brief cases, toy cars and Lego bricks fill filing cabinets, and the adults are spitting marbles and sneezing knives.
Out of their comfort zone, and hilarious with it, Eric, Caroline, Martin, Paula and Thomas slowly – very slowly – learn how to make friends and play again, to sing and to dance. It’s not too late for their dreams to come true; all they need to do is let their imaginations fly…
This may be the shortest and most definitive review ever:
It was fabulous.
It was funny.
It was very clever.
And it was very, very well performed by Het Laagland, a theatre company from the Netherlands.
We loved it.
The 7 year old and I are lucky enough to see a lot of good children’s theatre, and he’s not backwards about making his opinions known. As if his bouncing-on-his-seat laughter wasn’t indication enough, his first words were, ‘5 stars. Can you give it 5000 stars?’ Apparently, it rendered every other show we’ve seen – ever – invisible in comparison.
The reaction from the audience, all ages from 7 to 70 and myself included, wasn’t far behind.
And if all of this isn’t gushing enough, we’re putting our money where our mouths are. The 7 year old has talked me in to going to see it again. Tomorrow (last chance as part of the Imaginate Children’s Festival). His treat, he says – if I would kindly lend him the money.
Directed by Inèz Derksen
Cast & Script – Kim Berkenhagen (Caroline), Aafke Buringh (Paula), Lennart Monaster (Eric), Gijs Nollen (Thomas) & Folmer Overdiep (Martin)
*****
Traverse til June 3rd.