Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London
Family show brings gleeful playfulness to the story of a 12-year-old whose escape into extravagant daydreams has begun to alarm him
The more children you bring along to this new family show – the latest co-production from the Globe theatre and Splendid Productions – the more fun you’ll have. It’s ostensibly about a 12-year-old school boy, Cass, who is struggling with his doubts and fears and considering reining in his imagination altogether. However, what makes this stubbornly ambitious production so special is the gleeful sense of playfulness it ignites in the young audience, as well as the parents watching alongside them.
The story unfolds in young Cass’s imagination; a place populated by a host of cracking make-believe characters. There’s classical Shakespearean actor Sarah, played with a twinkling sense of pomposity by Kerry Frampton (also a co-writer on the show). Then there’s Tanvi Virmani’s plucky Cobweb - a minor Shakespearean character who has stuck around in Cass’s mind thanks to a brilliant production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Finally we have Zachary Willis’s Big Guy, one of Cass’s favourite TV characters, who spends most of his time enacting very silly and very funny play-fights.
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