It’s often the simple ideas that are the best. Paperbelle has already been winning a huge amount of praise and it’s easy to see why. Paperbelle likes her black-and-white world very much and wants it to stay that way. The sudden introduction of colour to her world initially seems startling, but will she grow to love it? Paperbelle herself is only a black-and white stick figure on a sheet of paper, who communicates by guitar morse code. This should be baffling to an audience of primarily under 5s, yet by the end of the 40 minutes they were cheering and clapping as Paperbelle’s world came alive, both by an innovative use of colour and also some excellent interaction by Eric (Stanley Pattinson) with the audience and Paperbelle herself, it is consistently accessible, creative, and, most importantly of all, fun.
The show is set within a white-sheeted room, where everything is in black-and-white. The scenery, charmingly drawn, has its own unique character that helps to fully realise Paperbelle’s world. As Paperbelle flits across the room, appearing in drawers and inside fish bowls, colours fill these objects. Water rises to the top of the fish bowl and green letters pour out of the door. By the end. Paperbelle herself, a figure drawn on a piece of card, shouldn’t in theory be as engaging as she is but the comic motions and bizarre facial expressions of Pattinson make a two-dimensional character come to life. He is assisted superbly by his musical back-up, Ben Talbot-Dunn, who provides amusing sound effects to aid the laughter. The highlight was a brief guitar rendering of ‘Scaredy-Cat’, which makes Paperbelle’s character more vivid than any guitar would.
Paperbelle excels at providing a constant sense of wonder for kids and adults. ‘Wow’ was a familiar sound as colour popped in and out to complement the performance. The pantomime parts and other funny bits were brought off with just the right amount of slapstick. Pattinson always had his audience in mind, never dragging on a scene for too long and keeping things moving nicely. As children’s entertainment goes during the Fringe, this is the one to beat.
