I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Capital E is a national treasure. Every school holidays and plenty of time in-between, Capital E serves up awesome theatre for kids. Seasons is the latest offering – a show that transports children through song, dance and puppetry into the heart of our ever-changing seasonal calendar.
Poor old Capital E has recently moved out of their building due to earthquake risk and this show was performed at their new temporary home, Downstage.
I’m liking
This quick trip through the seasons was thoroughly engaging and totally accessible for the younger set. Our very nearly 2 year old was on her first outing to the theatre and was completely entranced by the show, as was our 4 year old. As with the best of kids theatre, this play combined dance, song, physical comedy and some lovely gentle humour. The 4 year old particularly enjoyed the ‘audience participation’ elements in this show. The adults around us seemed to particularly enjoy the bird ‘birth’.
This show was perfectly timed for us as Miss 4 has been really obsessed by the idea of seasons and we’ve been talking about them a lot. This show tied nicely into those discussions and illustrated the changing of the seasons beautifully.
The actors in this show were all equally strong and held their roles well. However, for my kids, the real stars of the show were the glorious puppets. Miss 4 particularly loved the ballet dancing sheet, while Miss 2 adored the butterfly.
I also really liked the seamless and unselfconscious transitions between Maori and English.
Things that made me go hmmmm
While the puppets were fantastic, I didn’t understand why a kiwi play didn’t use recognisably New Zealand birds…
The conclusion
I’ve been to a few children’s shows and the thing that struck me most about this show was how engaged and quiet the children were. That’s not to say there weren’t moments where the children were in full noise yelling, for example to help find where the actors were hiding, but they were quiet in the quiet times – a great sign that they’re loving it! Another fabulous production from Capital E.
