What a great week the Barn Theatre had last week. After the final production in its inaugural year, Kirk Jameson’s actor-musician revival of Stiles & Drewe’s family musical Just So, opened to another batch of rave reviews, the Barn was celebrating a nomination for Fringe Theatre of the Year in the prestigious Stage Awards. Check out our round-up of review highlights below. Time to get booking!
After the success of this past March with inaugural production The Secret Garden, the Barn presents another much-loved, family musical in a new actor-musician production for its Christmas special. Just opened, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe‘s Just So, inspired by Rudyard Kipling is currently booking until 13 January 2019.
In Just So, five of Kipling’s short stories are woven together into a wondrous tale of personal courage, individuality and friendship. The Eldest Magician is creating all the animals. Everything is Just So until Pau Amma the Crab starts playing with the ocean, which causes the land to flood, putting the other animals in danger. While the rest of the animals accept their sad fate, Elephant’s Child embarks on a journey to challenge and overcome the disobedient crab. Along the way, he meets other creatures and discovers how they came to be the way they are.
In Kirk Jameson‘s new production, Lewis Cornay is Elephant’s Child and Molly Lynch is Kolokolo Bird, along with Duncan Drury, Dylan Wynford, Evie Rose Lane, Grant Urquhart, Imogen Halsey, Kiran Patel, Michaela Stern and Rosalind Ford. Matthew Kelly provides the Voice of Pau Amma The Crab.
Congratulations to all the nominees for Fringe Theatre of the Year, sponsored by https://t.co/OTTYJ03Tst:
Barn Theatre, Cirencester
Omnibus Theatre, London
Vault Festival, London
Find out why they were nominated at: https://t.co/w5aq3XXns3#TheStageAwards pic.twitter.com/poERNMLrVC— The Stage (@TheStage) December 13, 2018
Review highlights
A colourful cast and faultless choreography bring a slightly bonkers but quite brilliant performance of Just So to The Barn Theatre.
Featuring larger-than-life characters, Just So proved to be an energetic telling of Rudyard Kipling’s classic tales… Fast-paced and positively weird and wonderful… Just So is the perfect seasonal treat… The perfect thing to watch on a cold winter’s evening.
Jeremy Brien: “A large part of the magic is down to the creative team, from musical supervisor Nick Barstow’s new orchestrations to Joanna Goodwin’s vivid choreography and Sam Rowcliffe-Tanner’s multi-shaded lighting… A delightful Christmas entertainment.”
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