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2 hours ago
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We’re on our way to see Fireside Tales and my five-year-old son, Benji, is full of questions. Will the fire be real? Where will we sit? Luckily, it doesn’t take long for Benji’s anxiety to settle. Punchdrunk Enrichment’s new show has, like its predecessors, been created with schools, communities and children in mind. It’s a gentle and generous piece of immersive theatre – one that often, quite literally, takes the children by their hands and invites them to become part of the story.
To start off, we’re invited to browse the “bookstore”, crammed full of intriguing trinkets to touch and play with. Anxiety quelled and curiosity piqued, it’s time to enter the Punchdrunk Enrichment store where the show proper begins. And what a store it is, designed with immaculate attention to detail by Mydd Pharo. The shelves spill over with quirky objects; clusters of feathers, boxes of globes, bundles of photos, twinkling lava lamps and dusty typewriters.
Rebecca Clark and Amari Harris play the two storeowners, Cosi and Ali, brimming with enthusiasm and earnestness. Their task, the two explain, is to categorise all the world’s stories: air, water, fire and earth. The children listen carefully and happily join in. One kid shares her story about alien peacocks, wafting a bright blue feather in the air. A little boy holds aloft a torch and when a telephone starts ringing, a girl gingerly picks it up. A new story is coming, the girl proudly tells us. And it’s a fire story!
At this point, Benji is so excited he’s running on the spot. Tiny flares of light flicker about the store as the fire story “jumps” from one object to the next, lighting up the room in a dance of flames. We follow the flame out of the store and into a courtyard. It’s another beautiful space with crumbling walls covered in ivy, a huge unlit fire and clusters of logs to perch on. “This is amaaaazing,” exclaims Benji, as he grabs my hand and finds a good spot to sit down and take it all in.
The atmosphere is entrancing but Steve McCourt’s script starts to feel strained. The two store members share their stories about home and, oddly, they’re the least memorable part of the show. But there are still some special moments. We’re asked to draw a picture of home and, clutching scraps of paper and sticks of charcoal, the children quietly scribble away. Happy. Focused. Utterly immersed in their imaginations.
