Rapunzel – Chickenshed Theatre

Rapunzel from Chickenshed Theatre, London.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

The online premiere of Chickenshed’s 2017 show is as large scale and glitzy as we’ve come to expect from this ebulliently inclusive company.

Framed by a story about six children falling asleep and embarking on a dreamy quest to find their storyteller/Rapunzel (Cerys Lambert) it also unravels a secondary, episodic quest story about a king and queen who are searching for their long lost daughter.

Lou Stein’s version – inspired by many workshops with Chickenshed members – works at lots of levels with hope, love cooperation and positivity at the heart of the message.

Theatrically it needs the big stage in the Rayne Theatre because there are 200 in the cast. Four rotas operated through the run so the total number of participants was 800 which is a Chickenshed trademark.

Under Stein’s direction, and thanks to the work of a talented team of choreographers, the show includes some vibrant ensemble scenes with everyone singing and dancing to MD Dave Carey’s atmospheric melodies and rhythms.

It has to be said that the show sometimes requires viewer imagination when you’re seeing it reduced to a small screen. The lighting occasionally turns everything blue and dark corners tend to be too dark. Sound glitches – misplaced mics? –  don’t help either but this is certainly a fair way of seeing a fine show when you can’t get into the same room.

One advantage of online viewing is that the subtitles can be very easily and clearly displayed on screen. And because this is Chickenshed the whole piece is elegantly and integrally signed by talented actors at the heart of the action – never will Chickenshed bolt an afterthought signer on at the side of the stage.

The central cast of principals glues the show together charismatically. I especially like Gemilla Shamruk as Gothel the witch. She looks and acts like the Queen of the Night but sounds like Eartha Kitt.

And the ongoing double act between Nathaniel Leigertwood and Will Lawrence as the cat and the crow who serve Gothel is a real showstopper. They twist around each other with balletic cunning both in word and movement.

This is, effectively, Lou Stein’s last show for Chickenshed because, after five years he is now stepping down as artistic director. With ironic symmetry it was also his first. He won’t be an easy act to follow.

Susan Elkin