I miss playing. Remember when the large cardboard box was far more exiting than the large Christmas present it had held, when you and your friends would play at being whatever your imagination came up with, from cowboys to princesses to astronauts. As we age we stop playing at being daydream characters and start playing instead at being “proper grown-ups” and then we can forget what it was like to play in the first place which is why it’s wonderful when a show like the current offering from Visible Fictions recaptures that sense of play for both the children and the adults in the audience.

Jason, to avenge his father’s murder and claim the crown that is rightfully his, sails to the end of the world with a crew of heroes to find the golden fleece and take it back home, on the way he meets with a multitude of evil creatures and challenges that try to thwart his quest.

The initial conversation about staging Jason and the Argonauts must have been filled with questions, it’s a rather daunting story to try and perform. 50 Argonauts, Harpies, Bronze birds, a sea monster and of course the ship, how on earth are the cast going to recreate this incredible myth? They do it with breathtaking energy and a vast array of storytelling techniques.

The cast of two play all the characters, not in the usual way of playing half the characters each, they take turns to play the next character to appear on stage, so both play Jason, Hercules and the others. At first I thought this would prove confusing for younger audience members but there was not an element of doubt as to who was who and what they were doing. The excellent physicality of the two performers means that each of the characters is visually very different to the others. Tim Settle’s Medea is a particular highlight, fabulously feminine with only a slight tilt to the hips and a change to the set of his mouth.

The constant changes are all also present in the set. Action opens on a large cart, like the carts used by travelling theatre companies of old for morality plays. As the show progresses parts of the cart are unfolded to create the ship, and  it is moved around and about at different angles and even pulled apart towards the end, to create different settings, turning the stage, which at the start looks like a black box, into a veritable playground of climbing equipment. When the action calls for a larger view of it’s evil creatures, a smaller version of the ship complete with action men crew, is used by one performer, while the other gives us a close up view on the large ship.

With this highly frenetic feel it would have been easy for the piece to become a muddle of half understood scenes, but the direction is so clean cut, moving seamlessly from chapter to chapter, that it is instead a fluid piece of physical storytelling. Watching children’s theatre is all too often an experience that involves children constantly asking “what’s going on?”, kicking the back of your seat, and fidgeting. However the audience are all enthralled from the start, the only murmurs being under their breath cheers of “Jason, Jason, Jason” when Jason goes into battle.

Take your children to see this. If you don’t have a child, borrow one and take them. You will all come out with a want to go home and play at being heroes. Children’s theatre should be like this more often, a fun combination of storytelling and playtime. Energetic, entertaining and above all tremendous fun.

October
18th  Kilmarnock, Palace theatre
20th Co. Roscommon, Roscommon arts centre
25th Co. Mayo, Linenhall Arts Centre
27th Co. Longford, Backstage Theatre
31st Co. Louth, Droichead Arts Centre

November
2nd Glasgow, GilmorehillG12
7th Drumnadrochit, Craigmonie Centre
9th Elgin, Gordonstoun School
15th Mallaig, Mallaig and Morar Community Centre
17th Newtonhill, Bettridge Centre