Pobby & Dingan 03/02/2010
 
 
 
Pobby and Dingan, Brunton Theatre, MusselburghMary Brennan

Published on 1 Mar 2010

The sharp intake of breath at the end was from the little girl.

Her mum, like many of the adults in the audience, was blinking back tears. Surely, after everything young Ashmol had done for his kid sister – and frankly the requests concerning her imaginary friends had been increasingly fantastical and downright embarrassing for Ashmol – she would get better... wouldn’t she?

But there’s a gritty, uncompromising edge to Pobby and Dingan that refuses to sugar-coat the gut-wrenching moment when a 12-year-old Aussie boy leaves his childhood behind – loses gung-ho naiveté, perhaps, but acquires something truly enriching: an understanding that hope, love, family bonds, and the kindness of strangers are more valuable than the opals mined in Lightning Ridge.

It’s quite a learning curve for Ashmol. And for the 8+ age group that this vividly staged, astutely-nuanced Catherine Wheels production – directed by Gill Robertson, designed by Karen Tennant, soundscore by David Paul Jones – has in its sights. But as Ashmol himself says at the start, his story is a good one, and Rob Evans’s adaptation of the original book (by Ben Rice) has a feisty energy that honours that claim.

Scott Turnbull’s adolescent Ashmol has a rough and tumble charm, a forthright honesty, that swiftly draws you into the family turmoils that, unlike Pobby and Dingan, are all too real.

The rest of the cast – Ashley Smith, Ros Sydney and Damien Warren-Smith – ensure that Lightning Ridge’s collection of opal-dreaming oddballs spark Ashmol’s adventure with dashes of daft humour, scary hostility and ultimately an uplifting spirit of community in times of loss and heartbreak.

A real beaut, in anyone’s lingo.



Star rating: ****

 
Pobby and what? 02/24/2010
 
Dingan!
Dress rehearsal today and press night on Saturday. 
Nervous.
Yes.
Here's a lovely preview from Mary Brennan if you want to know a bit about it.
Also, all the tour dates are on the Pobby and Dingan facebook page, here.

 
Pobby & Dingan 01/14/2010
 
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Catherine Wheels Theatre Company presents Pobby & Dingan by Ben Rice, adapted for the stage by Rob Evans image by map.ref.ltd
About to go into rehearsals for Pobby and Dingan. I can't WAIT! Pobby and Dingan are Kellyanne's imaginary friends and when her dad loses them down his Opal mine it is up to her brother Ashmol to try and find them. 


"Will you help me look? I think it's the looking that counts. If Kellyanne knows we're out there, doing something, then maybe she'll get better. Maybe she'll be okay."


If you fancy coming to see it then it's touring Scotland from 25th February - April 1st. Details at Catherine Wheels website
 
 
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage-visual-arts/use-your-imagination-and-have-a-lot-of-fun-1.992157


"Rob Evans’s whimsical, tender tale of lonely prim’n’grim Carol (Ronnie Leer) who melts into seasonal goodwill when she has to help a lost Elf (Ben Lewis) find Santa before Christmas Day – he’ll die, otherwise.

Claire Halleran’s rooftop set has all the intricate surprise of a life-size pop-out book. Leer and Lewis (who only speaks a gobbledygook Elvish) deliver side-splittingly daft antics, especially as they clamber high and low – but as their adventure draws to a close, they unaffectedly convey the complex emotions that even young children recognise from their own friendships. Elf safe, Carol – like Scrooge – transformed ... audiences transported. Ho! ho! ho! Happy endings all round!" The Herald, 14th December 2009




Mary Brennan's review of shows for little ones across Scotland. 
 
 
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Photo: Douglas McBride
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Photo: Douglas McBride
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Photo: Douglas McBride
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Photo: Douglas McBride
The Night Before Christmas is all up and running at the MacRobert this month. It's a lovely show and everyone involved has done a fantastic job. Even the audience like it.


And here is an interesting article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/06/books-ebooks-technology-computers-society
 
 
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With the help of performers Ronnie Leer and Ben Lewis I'll be directing and devising a new show for 3-6 year olds at the MacRobert this Christmas. Come see it. It's going to be lovely.
 
 
Martinis, babies, Upper West Side rents, rollerdancing in the park, walks in the park, cardboard, cardboard, cardboard, glue, glue, glue, melon, melon, melon, Martinis, dancing, transvestites, bingo, Fitz, Manley, cupcakes, sLi the mysterious non-calling caller, fantstic. FANTASTIC! FANTASTIC!

Also, Kappa has finished its tour. No one will know except 2000 kids who might still be looking for Siph, Epsilon and Z. I hope so.

Kappa will be on again at the Imaginate festival 2010, along with Pondlife McGurk.
 
Byzantium 11/04/2009
 
Reading William Dalyrimple's From the Holy Mountain makes me think of Prospero. In Byzantine times there were many old stories of magician's being cast adrift on the ocean to drown because of the unchristian sorcery they practice. Why is this interesting? Something to do with the same story being used to see the sorcerer or intellectual as both evil and good. And what about Caliban? Where is he in the Byzantine scheme of things?

In other news work on adapting Ben Rice's novel Pobby and Dingan is hotting up. Worked with RSAMD students on the first draft and can't wait to see it in on stage. Coming to you from Catherine Wheels, it'll be available at all good theatres in March.
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DPJ 11/01/2009
 
Look who I'm working with on Pobby and Dingan. It's dreamy. www.davidpauljones.com