by Virginia Radcliffe
A new play for children and families, which we took round Scotland in Feb-April 2008
The venues we played
What the critics said
SITTING at my feet is a bounce of very lively wee boys. On my right is a granny with a just-toddling little girl. We are are giggling, all excited and happy - and totally focussed on a game of Witches Fingers, which the splendidly energetic cast of Heelie-go-Leerie have just taught us. You touch, with one finger, the person in front of you. On stage, the designated witch says:"I have a cup of..." and if she says "poison", you break contact. smartish. But of course she says other things and we all get caught out. The granny is smiling, remembering, perhaps, her own childhood games.
It's this kind of play - the "lets pretend" and the ensuing imaginary adventures - that the Licketyspit company celebrates by drawing us into a future world where there's a hint of real, and indeed possible, danger. For when Bella (Chris Devaney), Kaiser (Paul Chaal) and Taz (John Mcauley) come together on a ramshackle scrap heap - cunningly designed by Ali Maclaurin to accommodate oodles of fast-paced, athletic clamberings - they discover that there's a hole in the Big Roof that protects the world from deadly pollution.
With their quest to fix it as a plot-line, writer/director Virginia Radcliffe taps into he magic forces of make-believe:the stories our grannies tell us whatever culture we come from, of dragons;rhymes that make words and sounds skip like dance music;and the fun that lives in letting minds and bodies go Heelie-go-Leerie (Head-over-Heels). With lots of audience participation, this show proved a vivid reminder that child's play can run, brilliantly, without batteries included. Mary Brennan, THE HERALD
Clichéd though it sounds, kids often get more fun out of the box something comes in than the expensive product within. Imaginary play with cardboard tubes, dressing-up clothes and sticks is still as much fun as ever – if only children had time to do it.
Heelie-go-Leerie takes this most fundamental of activities and builds a storyline around it. Three children – Kaiser, Bella and Taz – lead hectic lives where there’s never enough time in the day for play. So, individually, they sneak off to the local dumping ground and indulge in some ‘me time’ with a disused washing machine and an old tyre.
When their lives finally collide, they embark on a series of wonderful imaginary adventures – flying to the moon in a tin bath, skating on ice and dressing up as witches. Meanwhile, their very existence is threatened by a hole in the ‘big roof’, which protects them from the smoky atmosphere above. An environmental sub-plot which highlights just how much pressure the younger generation is under to sort out our mess.
Energetic performances from all three cast members help drive this lively piece along. Minimal, but well-timed, audience participation allows the children to join in with rhymes or make like a chicken. And Virginia Radcliffe’s charming script reminds us all that in the absence of PlayStations, Wiis and TV, children will always find a way to entertain themselves, if we’d only let them.
Kelly Apter, THE LIST ****
There are difficult moments in this show but it offers a truly rich and original children's theatre experience. Heelie-go-Leerie is set in a dystopian future where the sky is hidden behind a Big Roof, and three children gather in a derelict place full of junk, to try to imagine themselves back to a better world. It takes a while for the story to emerge, from a performance so full of movement and gesture that it seems like a protracted guessing-game and, even after the situation becomes clear, there's a lot of Godot-like sitting around and waiting. But there's also something tremendously courageous and important here, in the determination to create a show truly based on the rhythm of children's imaginations at work, on sudden random flashes of inspiration, fragments of rhyme, and brief rushes of narrative invention. The cast work their way through it with terrific commitment and understanding, and the whole audience is charmed, touched and just slightly changed. Joyce Macmillan, THE SCOTSMAN
Licketyspit has quickly earned a reputation as one of Scotland's most polished children's theatre companies. Its work is typically playful, athletic and imaginative. Those qualities are all present in its latest production, Heelie-go-leerie (Head Over Heels), a playground fantasy for a broad age range from three-and-up ... it's time to remove the dust cloths and reveal Ali Maclaurin's excellent set, a rubbish tip adventure playground of discarded door frames, tubes and washing machines. There's a funny routine in which the actors emerge limb by limb, teasing us with each movement … winning performances of Christine Devaney (substituting at the last minute for an injured Annie Grace and doing a remarkable job at it), John MacAulay and Paul Chaal, all of whom are bright, entertaining and physically focused.
Mark Fisher, HI ARTS WEBSITE
Set in a piece of abandoned area where a group of kids go to play, Licketyspit’s play about play is a fantastic introduction to theatre for its target audience of three year-olds and over. The cast spend a friendly, but never too hearty, few minutes chatting to their audience and, just before the start, introduce the concept of the play - giving explicit instruction that joining in at the crucial moments is alright.
The story itself is a delightful delve into the world of make-believe. In their retreat, Kaiser (John MacAulay), Taz (Paul Chaal) and Bella (choreographer Christine Devaney replacing the injured Annie Grace in the opening shows of the run) create their own different worlds. When they happen to all be there together for the first time, those worlds begin to overlap.
As they set off to find a way to mend the hole that has formed in the roof of the world, and is in danger of letting the smoke come in, they find dragons, witches and rhymes. And suddenly Ali Maclaurin’s cleverly designed set of old metal drums and abandoned washing machines takes on the appearance a sleeping dragon.
The use of rhymes and story lines created in workshops with nursery children makes for a pleasing level of the surreal. But director Virginia Radcliffe makes intelligent use of repetition and revelation to coax the audience along with the plot. It is a pleasure to witness this succeed and there are moments of real magic, particularly when the dragon takes flight.
Thom Dibdin, THE STAGE
Some pictures of the show
Some audience responses
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