Review – The Fairytale Cookbook

As parents we have all sat through excruciating performances of unfunny child humour. The Fairytale Cookbook is not like that. I liked this one. All the youngsters in the audience seemed to enjoy it too, but I always think the true test of a kid’s show is if it entertains the adults, and this one hits the mark.

It would have been very possible for this one to be lame. The audience cast the play, they choose the characters and they guide the course of events. In improvisation it is easy to fall flat, but the performances in this show are outstanding. The actors are highly professional. They have great mime and acting skills, there is a real energy about the performance, and they have fabulous comic timing.

Every show is different with three freshly improvised fairy tales each performance. The audience are given a sheet from which to select the characters and plot lines. This works well because in audience participation there are two possibilities either the audience member will call out something totally lame, or they will strike gold. The expressive actors created comedy out of even the most unfunny plot requests and worked expertly with the gold.

This performance was great for families with children aged four to ten.