If you’ve been scouring the festival fringe for sheer, unadulterated fun, then make sure you catch the fantastic Once Upon A... The brainchild of Pipe Up, and New Celts Productions is a camp, bombastic and giddily entertaining forty five minutes of interactive storytelling featuring fairies, trolls and a gargantuan beach ball.
Taking place on Imagination Street, this show thrives on participation, how each stage of this auspicious adventure progresses is aided by bellowed suggestions from the audience sitting not on chairs, but clouds. Children lapped up the opportunity to incorporate flying tigers and magical cheese and tomato sandwiches into the narrative almost as much as the cast enjoyed performing with them.
All five actors were on top form; warming up the crowd with ease. Their quiksilver improvisation was impressive despite younger members of the audience who were prone to shouting over lines and providing the villainous troll with useful information when they were supposed to be booing and hissing. The troll was played with aplomb by an actor so hysterical you end up rooting for him instead.
Other humorous highlights included the signature keyboard music, seamlessly accentuating every gag, and a sublimely silly slow motion skit, set to the chariots of fire theme. This is a show that revels in its own lack of sophistication, and outside of the occasional cringe worthy song, is all the better for it. Ultimately Once Upon A... is lightweight fluff, it won’t stay with you beyond the exit like the best children’s fiction, but while you’re there, it’s absolute magic.
