Mil's Trills, starring a very bubbly Amelia Robinson on the ukulele, has travelled all the way from New York City to introduce the little ones of this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe to the wonderful world of musical instruments. Every day the hostess is joined by a new friend wielding an instrument and through the magic of song the audience - big and small - are brought together in a jolly celebration of music, dancing, and good old fashioned rattle fun.
Audience participation was encouraged from the very beginning, when the children were invited to join the friendship circle. Following this ice-breaker was the opportunity to join in using shaky toys and rattles, which brought much joy to everyone under 5.
The comedic aspects of the set went completely over the children's heads, and sadly were not funny enough to prompt even a giggle from anyone on Team Parent. All of the songs are original, written by Robinson, and all but a few of them are utterly bizarre. This did not matter to the children, who were consistently uplifted by buoyant melodies and happy rhythms, not to mention some special dance moves for the audience themselves.
The special guest was Ian on his double bass. He gave an easy-to-follow explanation of how the instrument is played, asking the children to guess what it was made from and giving them a chance to examine the bow. He then proceeded to give a demonstration of the different styles in which the double bass can play, using audience suggestions as inspiration. A story featuring the special guest instrument was then read (or rather sung), while the instrument illustrated the story. This is a lovely touch to the show, but sadly in this performance the words of the story could not be made out due to Amelia's very stylised and scatty singing style.
The show is heavily American, with songs about Brooklyn, the subway, and New Orleans. More of an effort could have been made to make the show more relevant for youngsters at the Fringe, none of whom seemed aware of what was being sung about most of the time. Ultimately, the premise of this show is lovely. Unfortunately, however, it has not been as well executed as it might have been. At the end of the day though, Amelia succeeds in keeping ten under 5's engaged for the best part of 50mins, thanks to her overly energetic persona and willingness to make a bit of a fool of herself on stage.
Come willing to join in and expect an entertaining show filled with plenty of lively interaction for your child, but don't expect musical miracles.
