As Detective ‘O’, Corina Bona fronts a talented team of Bristol-based puppet-makers, designers and freelance theatre producers and directors that have combined to create this charming production that will have six-year-olds all over Bristol dreaming up new detective cases of their own.
As the theatre filled with rows of expectant children, Corina did a great job of engaging them with questions about themselves in an American drawl accent. Everyone seemed to want to tell her how old they were, which was usually six, but sometimes five. Wearing a red sleuthing style raincoat and a black trilby with matching rouge band, Cori, as she is known, asked her young audience about the colour of their toy pets, or if their brothers or sisters were in the audience and getting them to wave etc., creating a friendly atmosphere before she was off on her first case… Thumbelina had disappeared and she had to be found as her poor mother was very upset.
We were introduced to the tools of the detective trade: binoculars, handcuffs and a magnifying glass. Each time Cori asked, “Have you got yours?” When everyone yelled ‘No!” she demonstrated how you could have pretend ones. Everyone was made to feel fully ‘equipped’. The ‘Rookies’ were trained and ready for action.
Cori found ‘clues’ amongst the audience and with the children’s participation started to find links to the missing mini-girl. Using a sequence of puppets that included suspects Squirrel, Mouse, Hedgehog and Mole, the helpful flying bug Simon, Thumbelina’s mum and a fluffy dog specially named by this afternoon’s crowd, Cori eventually led us down into make-believe sewers to a place where horrible and evil puppet toads were discussing Thumbelina’s demise. Cori brought all the characters very much to life with different accents and voices, while all the while sounding like a young Columbo herself.
Against a catchy soundtrack from eccentric Bristol musician Ed Patrick, aka Kid Carpet, Cori delivered a decent Cold Case Blues when she started to ‘lose’ Thumbelina’s trail. On a set strewn with Police crime-scene barrier tape, and that included a retro phone, suitcases stacked on metal frames waiting to reveal their puppet inhabitants and a very plausible fish that high-fived the front row with its flapping tail, the kids had plenty to watch and get involved with. The whole audience jumped up on command to help find the missing Thumbelina, and was clearly pleased with the afternoon’s work when she was finally found. Everyone was rewarded with a detective badge before they left the theatre.
The show is fun and quite gentle – no loud bangs for instance, and relies solely on Cori’s unquestionable talent for instilling life into inanimate objects and her confident and friendly manner. As an alternative to the annual panto, this is a good entrée to the world of theatre for the very young. ★★★☆☆ Simon Bishop 18/02/15
