Patch Theatre/Restless Dance Theatre. The Space Theatre. 13 Aug 2022
Remember playtime when you were a kid? Your imagination made new worlds. If you were jumping over crocodiles, you really were!
Home takes this experience to the next level in a fashion that is totally and magically immersive.
Even before the show starts it has won over its audience of 4-10 year olds. A few discover a flat table that projects hands, objects and faces on a screen; a horde of little tackers surge forward to have a go!
That surging, playful horde of amazed kids is the very essence of the spirit of Home.
Co-Director/Designer Geoff Cobham and Designer Michelle Delaney’s set is gloriously colourful. Bright synthetic green grass floor, bright yellow door smack bang centre upstage, and pretty metallic flower structures dotted about. Composer Jason Sweeny graces the work with terrifically upbeat pop music as you take your seat, and you notice there’s a little house sitting on a brightly lit little mushroom shape stool.
It is a very important little house! It comes to life! It speaks! It introduces us to Zoë (Zoë Dunwoodie) and Charlie (Charlie Wilkins,) our new friends who share some wild adventures with us, guided by the little house.
The little house likes to be passed about the audience. If you are lucky, you might be invited onstage to play games! Discover what’s behind the yellow door!
What magical worlds that yellow door hides and reveals. Co-Director Daisy Brown along with Cobham successfully gives the production the true feel of anarchic mystery that playtime is made of. We bounce from one wild world of magic to another, barely noticing where we were, let alone going next. That’s sharp, very aware direction.
Jimmy Dodd, Artist in Residence, Elias Ppiros and Wendy Todd’s props are the stuff childhood magic forgot. Renate Henschke’s costumes are just right kid-stuff. Sound Designer Sascha Budimski’s superb work makes one particular game an outstanding top kid moment.
Home is an experiment founded on immense technical skill which manages to hide itself brilliantly and instead make live and present a magical feeling during and after the show.
David O’Brien
Where: The Space Theatre
When: 13 and 20 Aug
Where: Hopgood Theatre Noarlunga – regional tour 23 August – 8 September
When: 27 Aug
Bookings: patchtheatre.org.au
