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Writing

 
Sam Forbes Review by Sam Forbes 4 Published: 15 Aug 2015 Greenside @ Infirmary Street Show Dates: 7 Aug 2015-15 Aug 2015

A charming, witty and engaging show, Writing is an exploration of just that - the process of writing, as seen from a child’s perspective. Emma Clarke and Olive Merrill take us through a creative five-year-old’s world; navigating lunch box surprises, cut-out paper dragons and simple but vital reading and writing lessons.

The lingering beauty of Writing is in simple yet resonant images.

Performed with no traditional dialogue and with wide-eyed enthusiasm and a buoyant, playful curiosity, Clarke and Merrill imitate children themselves. In some of the gentlest and most inclusive clowning you’ll see all Fringe, they run around the space and encourage us to get involved in their antics. Their huge grins may be exaggerated but they are also infectious - you can’t help but laugh along with them as they associate sounds and letters for the first time. Handing out whiteboards and dry wipe pens, we join them in their writing lesson where they have to describe a monster.

The juxtaposition between their wild childish creativity and the lessons they have to sit through is highlighted wonderfully. For example, they are bombarded with information to help them describe the wonderful images in their heads yet they can only manage “the monster is big”. Of course, we all have to start somewhere but in seeing the extent of the primary school barrage - informed by the company members’ own backgrounds in education - you wonder if something has gone dreadfully wrong in the way that we teach children the most basic yet creative of skills.

It would have been nice, perhaps, to have had a little more insight into these political problems that underpin our education system. Although you can’t blame Clarke and Merrill for not doing so in what is a very family friendly show.

The lingering beauty of Writing is in simple yet resonant images such as their simple puppet friend - a bamboo skeleton in a red school jumper - as well as the opportunity to revisit childhood again, unhindered, pen in hand. A wonderful piece of devised simplicity with universal appeal.

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What is your image of a monster? Ferocious? Spiky? Furry? Amicable? Magnanimous? Bristly? Unnerving? Come and create this intriguing monster together. Let your imagination scamper free as you create something that is brilliant, unique, exceptional, splendid, superb, extraordinary… But how will your five-year-old self, using only a triangular gripped pencil and your helpfully guide-lined paper communicate this idea to the grown-up who lingers beside you, rubber in hand? Join us for a new piece of original theatre that examines the challenges a child faces when trying to convey their ideas through writing.