Up, Up, Up, and Away is a charming piece of family theatre based on The Flea and the Professor by Hans Christian Andersen and brought into your homes.
In response to lockdown, Creation Theatre and new company Super Stories with City Actors have crafted an interactive Zoom production aimed at 3-8 year old “Cloud Cadets”.
Up, Up, Up, and Away is fun from the very beginning, as we meet Captain Calamity (Rowland Stirling) and his apprentice (Ryan Duncan). Together we go on an adventure with places, actions and slogans taken from the audience. Props are gathered together, travel buddies are signed in, a catchy song is sung.
Actor Duncan has a fleeting resemblance to musical legend Tommy Steele, and the type of boundless energy that appeals to tiny viewers. Stirling not only portrays the eccentric Calamity, but also a Gallic flea who commandeers a flea circus, and a mysteriously useless magician.
The show – which is interactive if you want it to be, and a pleasure to watch if you’re happier going that – is not only written by George Rennie, but also live-mixed throughout. It’s a tour de force piece of behind the scenes magic.
With music by Jessica Dives and a set-up which brings back memories of the halcyon years of children’s TV (“Timoflea Charlemagne” is surely a close cousin of Itsy and Bitsy the spiders), Up, Up, Up, and Away is enjoyable from start to finish, and the children who chose to participate clearly liked their moment of fame.
If you like your stories strong and inventive, your friends on the screen to be fun and friendly, and your technical experience to be fairly seamless and beautifully put together, this is one for you and your family to watch.
Up, Up, Up, and Away runs for its next performance, 11am on the 11 July. To book (tickets are £12 and well worth it), visit Creation Theatre’s website.
More performances are booked in and will be announced by the company soon.
LouReviews received a complimentary ticket to join Up, Up, Up, and Away