Children, especially toddlers are known to be tyrants. Jonas Laursen’s Cherub Spring: a Political Satire takes this fact to an entirely new level.
Incredibly clever and full of subtly funny moments
Claire (Caoimhe O’Sullivan) is the game chooser of her group of friends and forces them to play the games she wants. Tired of her control over the games on the playground, Sophie (Leah Francis) leads a revolution that changes the way the group plays their imaginary games. Switching between how the toddlers are actually versus how they perceive themselves in their minds, this show is in itself an audio visual experience.
Cherub Spring: a Political Satire is incredibly clever and full of subtly funny moments. This show provides a more comprehensive explanation of a transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, but also the pitfalls that such a transition could incur. Laursen’s writing helps us get lost in the story and the politics involved, before reminding us that these aren’t the arguments and negotiations of seasoned politicians, but toddlers. And the parallels between the two are uncanny, especially when we hear language that is very much part of our own political reality.
O’Sullivan is the picture of a Machiavellian villain. Her sweetness and smiles that don’t quite meet her eyes are incredibly menacing, and never has there been a better representation of a mean girl. There is something incredibly disturbing watching a toddler in a tutu plan out villainous schemes, and O’Sullivan adopts relatively sociopathic mannerisms in order to carry out the storm of a performance that she does.
There is something extremely therapeutic watching Cherub Spring: a Political Satire. Mainly because of the comparison we inevitably make to the present state of the world, but also the fact that the story itself is milder, and in doing so, Cherub Spring: a Political Satire provides us with an opportunity to relax, just a little.
