children's shows review

'I Can't Sleep' By David O'Doherty

Lisa Richards In Association With Edcom8

It's never fun to have someone storm into your bedroom, let alone have a whole audience traipse in while you're sleeping. David can't sleep, so to wake up Maeve he gets the audience to make the noise of her alarm clock, the dawn chorus, a rooster. Or the sea, and the ships in her dream. David's capacity to imagine the way a child does makes this enthralling viewing; the children do not have to be forced into entering this madcap world that seemed wholly improvised, and yet so convincing. By destroying any sense of the fourth wall, by playing hide and seek, by making a castle out of their mattresses, he made this show hilarious, adventurous and energetic. Bedtime will never be the same again.

Assembly @ George Street, 31 Jul - 25 Aug (not 11), 2.20pm (3.20pm), prices vary, fpp 14

tw rating: 5/5

published: Aug-2008

[Rhiannon Smith]


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