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ED2013 1/5 Reviews ED2013 Children's Shows Reviews
A Boy Who Cried Wolf (Gem & Ren / PBH’s Free Fringe)
By Holly Sharp | Published on Monday 19 August 2013
‘A Boy Who Cried Wolf’ is a step-by-step guide of how not to do a kid’s show. Performers ‘Gem & Ren’ harangue their audience with an hour of patronising cooing and condescending pep talks about being a “great team”. The essentially strong concept of taking audience suggestion to improvise new stories is doomed by their fundamental misunderstanding of how to talk to children or adults. A sequence improvising songs with ‘zany’ lyrics is thrashed to death after 1,000 repeats of the same song. Audience rapport is marginally livelier than a wake; the performers largely suggest their own improvisations, and excruciating high-fives are dished out to adults who pipe up to put them out their misery. I considered walking out and throwing myself down the stairs. Painful.
The Dram House Upstairs, until 24 Aug (not 7, 14, 21), 11.45am.
tw rating 1/5 | [Holly Sharp]
