Clownfish Theatre’s Jonathon Tilley and Jess Clough-Macrae overact the premise of this kid-friendly show, to the delight of kids and grown-ups alike.
Daft but loveable duo take animal impersonation to a new frontier
The real David Attenborough (and his animals) are no-shows at The Gilded Balloon, meaning it'll take some deft physical theatre and a wild imagination to reconstruct the billed show.
Without costume changes and very few props excluding a cursory banana, it’s remarkable how the duo can keep their young audience rapt for the full hour. The eloquent, chino-wearing Tilley softens us up with a faultless impersonation of Attenborough but it is co-star Macrae who steals all attentions with her near-infinite repertoire of animal impersonations, made memorable thanks to an unsurpassed energy and off-the-wall facial expressions.
Three-toed sloth yes, but certainly no one-trick pony, Macrae growls and squawks and hisses her way to the total embodiment of crab, Komodo dragon, meerkat, kookaburra, blue whale and beyond, silly but committed throughout.
Together, the two have a stage chemistry that is a joy to watch in its primeval purity. When Macrae plucks termites from Tilley’s arm or sucks at a lock of his hair as an orangutang infant, there’s an intimacy that is both human and not.
At the very least, Attenborough and His Animals is a well-spent hour of silliness, but more than that, the show has the capacity to move us, touching on deforestation and plastic pollution and pulling unexpectedly on our heartstrings with that damn emotive orchestra soundtrack.
