We\u2019ve just returned from an action-packed trip to London and Edinburgh, Scotland. My plan was to share the details of the trip with you chronologically, but I\u2019m going to break from that in the event you know anyone planning to be in Edinburgh in the next few days.<\/p>\n
Each year Edinburgh turns into a premier performing arts venue through the Edinburgh Festival Fringe<\/a>, the largest arts festival in the world. In 2009 the Fringe is hosting 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues. The shows range from comedy to drama to the absolutely fantastic children\u2019s shows which captured my children\u2019s imaginations (and also my own!) last week.<\/p>\n Our host for trip selected two shows: Giraffes Can\u2019t Dance<\/em><\/a>, based on the Giles Andreae book and performed by Blunderbus Theatre Company and Room on the Broom<\/em><\/a>, based on the Julia Donaldson book and performed by Tall Stories.<\/p>\n We own both of the books, so I was particularly interested in seeing the live adaptations. Between the two families, we had children ages 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 years.<\/p>\n Giraffes Can\u2019t Dance<\/em> tells the story of Gerald, a giraffe who dreads the annual jungle dance festival because he is clumsy and, well, can\u2019t dance. He feels out of place until later in the story when he discovers that he can, in fact, dance\u2026 he just needed to find his own rhythm.<\/p>\n Blunderbus\u2019 three performers do an excellent job involving the audience and portraying nearly 10 animals of the jungle in vibrant headpieces.<\/p>\n Before the show, the actors wander about the audience, chatting a bit and gathering names and information which they\u2019ll tie into the show later. Before the show our hosts told one of the actors that we were there because their son remembered Blunderbus\u2019 performance from a previous year and asked to see another show by the same company. The son\u2019s name was mentioned several times in the show and the mom ended up taking part. Another dad in the audience ended up being transformed into a chimpanzee for the show!<\/p>\n The actors did a fantastic job in pulling us right into the story and keeping our attention with their energy and enthusiasm. The fact that at one point they invite all the children to stand on their seats and dance like a chimpanzee didn\u2019t hurt. Nor did the fact that the parents were asked to stand on top of their chairs and do the same dance while the children giggled at us.<\/p>\n We all enjoyed the show\u2026 our almost 8-year old was probably on the cusp of the age bracket, though. It was advertised as appealing to 3-7 year-olds and I would completely agree with that age range. (The oldest child with us was still intrigued, though… but he was the one who was already a Blunderbus fan.)<\/p>\n And don\u2019t worry if you are at the end of the cue and get a seat at the back of the theater… the performers \u00a0run through the crowd and involve everyone in the show. There really wasn\u2019t a bad seat in the house!<\/p>\n After Giraffe\u2019s Can\u2019t Dance<\/em>, we had lunch (more on that another day) and took in another show.<\/p>\n On a previous trip to Scotland, our friends had shared The Gruffalo <\/em>with us, so when I saw Room on the Broom<\/em> by the same author at Pottery Barn several months later, I snapped it up and our family has enjoyed reading it every October. So naturally I was intrigued by the idea of a live adaptation of the book.<\/p>\n Again I was quite impressed.<\/p>\n Four actors captured our attention before the show even began, as the actors climbed through the audience, stepping over rows of benches, chasing each other and involving the audience in conversation. (Is this just how it is at The Fringe?)<\/p>\n The story stayed true to the book with a bit of creative license thrown in at the beginning and end. In the story, a friendly witch flies through the air on her broom with her cat and drops things, causing her to land and retrieve them. In the process she makes friends with a dog, bird, and frog who join her on her flight on the broomstick until, eventually, there isn\u2019t enough room, and the broom breaks near a deadly dragon.\u00a0 The friends join forces to save her from the dragon.<\/p>\n The costumes are clever and the costume changes are well-executed. (You\u2019ll know what I mean if you go.) The effects are superbly carried out, often tongue in cheek, and just made me (and the others) giggle. This show was quite clever and lots of fun.<\/p>\n All of our children were completely engaged and they all easily shared his or her favorite parts after the show. The actors sang, danced, taught us magical spells and entertained as the hour-long performance flew. This was another excellent show that I cannot recommend enough\u2026 for the kids and the parents.<\/p>\n Like I said above, there are many, many other shows associated with the Fringe, so if you are able to go (this year or next) and can\u2019t take in these performances, don\u2019t fret. But if you are looking for two sure bets, Giraffe\u2019s Can\u2019t Dance<\/em> and Room on the Broom<\/em> were sure winners for us!<\/p>\n For more Fringe reviews and Scotland experiences, please check back. I\u2019ll be sharing my tales of London in the next few days (Peter Pan at Kensington Gardens, the Tower of London, London Eye, Princess Diana Memorial Playground, a fantastic hotel, Lego Land, plus a grown-up date night, and more) and then move on to our overnight train ride to Edinburgh, Scotland and what else happened during our 6th<\/sup> visit to that city. We had a blast, so you don\u2019t want to miss it!<\/p>\n Have you seen any children’s shows at the Fringe that you particularly enjoyed? Do tell!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve just returned from an action-packed trip to London and Edinburgh, Scotland. My plan was to share the details of the trip with you chronologically, but I\u2019m going to break from that in the event you know anyone planning to be in Edinburgh in the next few days. Each year Edinburgh turns into a premier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scotland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Giraffes Can’t Dance<\/em>, performed by Blunderbus<\/h3>\n
Room on the Broom<\/em>, performed by Tall Stories<\/h3>\n