A Squash and A Squeeze

A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE LEAVES YOU WITH A LOVELY WARM GLOW AND FILLS YOU WITH SUNSHINE

As the Quays Theatre at Lowry started to fill up on this soggy August day, it was clear that the brilliance and magic of all that is Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler was more than enough to bring its own kind of sunshine.  Excited children were eager to make sure their grown ups were up to speed on the story, and as we entered the theatre and the wise old man from the story meandered his way through the audience (declaring us the villagers), the scene was set for this Little Angel Theatre and Lowry co-production.  When the curtains opened to reveal the small house that is indeed a squash and a squeeze to live in, the young audience audibled ‘wowed’, and it wasn’t long before the wise old man was introducing us to his winning formula in life of every problem having an ‘easy peasy solution’ – indeed many audience members were even handed a business card!  As he sung along to his own jingle, showing us the contents of his suitcase, including an umbrella with a hole, a mop head, and a tennis racket, he is instantly faced with a problem that needs a solution – a wasps nest!  As he tries a few different objects, we get our first glimpse of the puppetry involved in the show as a swarm of wasps attack him, brilliantly attached to wire on the end of some gardening tools!  All this comradery and fun is a perfect way to settle the children into the routine of theatre, before the story they know and love so well begins.

A Squash And A Squeeze, for those who don’t know, tells the story of a lady who complains her house is too small, and that there is no room to swing the proverbial cat.  She is unhappy with what she has and wishes for more space.  Enter the wise man, who of course has an easy peasy solution for her.  He tells her to move her hen in to live with her.  Unsure, she does as she is told, but the hen causes chaos, flapping and flying, and laying eggs everywhere.  Next the wise man instructs her to move her goat in, so she does.  But the goat and the chicken don’t get on and the goat tries to eat everything in sight, chewing her table leg and curtains.  Next up is the pig, who eats so much food he stinks the place out, making it seem smaller still as she can’t escape the disgusting aroma.  Last up is the cow, whose sheer bulk and size ensures that this house is now standing room only, and the woman is out of her mind with despair.  Just as she is having a minor breakdown, the wise man tells her to clear everyone out.  She complains that this is no good as she’ll just be right back where she started but he asks her to trust him.  So the hen, the goat, the pig and the cow are all turfed out, and lo and behold, her house suddenly feels luxuriously big with them all gone, and she is happy, realising that it is plenty big enough for one person.  The moral of the story?  We aren’t always grateful or aware of exactly what we have got, when it is sometimes everything we need and more than enough.

The show is performed by three hard working and engaging cast members – Ruth Calkin as the old woman, Chris Dobson as the wise old man, and Mark Esaias as the narrator and other roles.  Each performer takes it in turn to puppeteer the various animals, creating brilliantly hilarious animal sounds that had the young audience in stitches.  The funky clucks of the hen gave it a real chaotic personality, the bleets and baa’s of the goat ensured his grumpiness was felt, the snuffles, screeches and oinks from the pig had many audience members joining in and copying, and the forlorn moo’s of the cow ensured we felt its isolation.  Ruth Calkin was full of energy, had a stunning singing voice, and had some brilliant asides that made the older audience giggle as we felt her frustration with the wise old man, often questioning “are you still here?” under her breath.  Chris Dobson was instinctively likable from the off and continued to charm the audience throughout with his infectious charm.  He made some great facial expressions and had a natural flare for physical comedy, making everyone laugh time and again.  Mark Esaias introduced us to each of the animals with brilliant puppetry skills and set the scene convincingly for each one.  He was always engaged with the puppet, making us watch them rather than him, yet he was equally able to take centre stage and make us listen intently through wonderful storytelling skills.

A Squash And A Squeeze had additional cast members with the puppets, designed by Maia Kirkman-Richards.  These puppets were brilliant!  I became so interested each time another one was introduced, for not only were they designed in a way that made them easy to handle and swap around between the performers, without ever having to break the suspense of disbelief as this happened, each one was designed with its own uniqueness and incorporation of something from the human world.  I’ve previously mentioned how this was achieved via garden hose for the wasps, and for the goat, pig, and cow, various items were used to create the main bulk of their body.  The goat head was puppetry, with its body being formed courtesy of a wheelbarrow stuffed with hey.  The pigs body was its trough, and the cows body was brilliantly designed around a milkmaids yolk, held across the shoulders of Mark Esaias, whose hands fed into the front end and back end of the cow!  It even had the milk buckets hanging down, as the udder and as a leg.  The way these puppets were incorporated into the show was extremely slick, witty, creative, and a real highlight.  They provided a multitude of dimensions, personalities, and each animal even came with its own song (original songs by Barb Junger).  We learnt through song that the hen likes to tango, the goat doesn’t like rain, the pig is quite the food connoisseur, and the cow is lonely on his own in the field and just wants some friends.

The main staple of the set was the house itself (designed by Kate Bunce), and it opened up to reveal the lady’s cosy living abode.  It was also able to move around in a circle so that the actors could play with different dimensions depending on where the windows ended up, or where the door was.  With lighting by Sherry Coenen completing the creative team, we saw a mixture of sunshine, thunderstorms, and even the flashing dayglo lights of a party, where the sound brilliantly dipped in and out too as the doors and windows were opened and closed.  Adapted for stage by Samantha Lane (who also directs) and Barb Junger, this production runs at around an hour, a great length to ensure continued engagement with younger audience members.  There are plenty of opportunities for the children to shout out as they are directly asked questions, and even some comic moments for the older audience as a broken cassette tape is produced by the old man and he needs to figure out a way to reel the tape back in.  Now it’s the adults turn to join in, creating a funny moment as instead of shouting out what to do, we all started acting out wiggling a pen in the reel and winding the tape in, so the performer copied our actions minus the pen!  It was funny afterwards hearing the children asking what that object was!  Oh how times have changed.  One of the more special moments came right towards the end of the show as the closing words of the book were spoken and the whole audience joined in.  It felt quite magical actually.  And then came a catchy ear worm song for us all to join in with, leaving this audience with a lovely warm glow and a wonderful start to the day.  A Squash And A Squeeze is definitely a popular story so grab your tickets now else you might find yourself squashed and squeezed trying to find a seat!

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