The tents are up. The banners are flying and the 34th annual Northern Alberta International Children's Festival is overflowing with vibrant, positive energy.
The tents are up. The banners are flying and the 34th annual Northern Alberta International Children's Festival is overflowing with vibrant, positive energy.
Its theme Live in Colour appears to burst from every corner of festival site sprawled across the Sturgeon River's banks.
Somewhere between the trolls, clowns, jugglers and stilt walkers, it's easy to lose sight of this as a cultural event and downplay it as big party.
But the main stage shows are by and large quite artistic and inventive. Although less than an hour in length, they display incredible depth and range from gripping and poignant to outright energetic and funny.
Below is a sampling. All shows run until Saturday. Tickets are $11 and are available at 780-459-1542 or online at ticketmaster.ca
Aché Brasil, Arden Theatre: All ages
From the moment Aché Brasil explodes onto the stage wearing traditional indigenous people's grass skirts and war paint, they embody Brazil in all its colour, music and high energy.
What a great workout this five-person troupe enjoys relaying the culture and drum rhythms of Brazil as they demonstrate traditional folk dances culminating with the fluid martial/arts dance form capoeira.
Back flips. High kicks. Air splits. Jump flip kicks. The pace never lets up and surges with intensity at each passing moment.
Throughout the 45-minute show, absorbing information nuggets tie the fancy moves into a highly entertaining spectacle. There is the Maculelê stick dance named after a warrior who defended his village with two sticks. Two dancers battle it out twirling jumping to the three pounding drums.
They also performed the coconut dance inviting approximately 15 kids on stage to shake their booties and take part in a boppin' conga line.
While the kids screamed their pleasure at an incredible display of capoeira, with its slow motion, balletic ninja-like moves, I found myself enthralled at the berimbau. It's a one-string percussion instrument that looks like a Robin Hood bow and produces an otherworldly sound.
High energy, a fast pace, lots of action and sleight-of-hand learning are the hallmarks of Aché Brasil. It was delightful from start to finish.
– Anna Borowiecki
James and the Giant Peach, St. Albert Children's Theatre CN Stage, St. Albert Curling Club: Suggested age: 3 and over
This is theatre by kids, for kids, and it certainly hits the mark.
The St. Albert Children's Theatre's presentation of this Roald Dahl classic features a huge cast including a chorus line of two dozen extras along with the dozen main characters, and showcases the kind of up-and-coming theatrical talent St. Albert has to offer.
It focuses on the titular James, whose parents died in a bizarre zoo accident when a rhinoceros escaped – a scene featuring what is arguably the best costume of the whole show – and he is forced to live with his laughably mean old aunts.
Not long after being put to work knocking down an old peach tree, James comes upon a magic potion that he clumsily spills, creating a giant peach and some overgrown insect friends at the same time.
What follows is a journey to some unexpected places with some unexpected guests along the way, in which James learns a little bit about belonging, friendship, and entomology.
The chorus line is put to good use in the many musical numbers, which take up roughly half the run time of the show, and helps to keep the story moving along quickly during scene changes.
The set pieces are quite minimalist, but this enhances rather than detracts from the performance as it keeps the audience's attention on the characters and their interactions.
Whether or not you're a Roald Dahl fan, this show is well worth the price of admission.
– Doug Neuman
Under The Stars L'Illusion Théâtre de Marionettes École Father Jan School: Suggested age: 5 and over
The Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel fable has always fallen flat with me – until I saw Montreal-based L'Illusion Théâtre de Marionettes' adaptation.
Their version titled Under the Stars is an endearing whimsical tale about a brother-sister relationship that by turns is loving, playful, competitive, loyal, courageous and mischievous.
Within five minutes we fall in love with the puppet siblings. In the first scene, the children tuck themselves in bed on an empty stomach while their parents discuss abandoning them in the forest before there are four corpses in the house. The cupboard is bare and only a heart made of stone would not immediately empathize with their cause.
The story follows traditional plot points. As they enter the dark forest, owls, coyotes and spirits of the night appear just enough to frighten the puppets and send shivers down the audience's spine.
The focus is mostly low tech with a white balloon standing in for the moon and a puppeteer's hands for a swan. But the 45-minute show has just enough updates such as Hansel high-fiving his sister, to keep it engaging.
The set is a simple, but an ingenious hammock-shaped wooden structure with moveable slats function to create a bedroom, a bridge, a river, the witch's house, the stocks and an oven.
But what truly captivates and charms is Czech puppet maker Robert Smolik's wooden rod puppets. Sabrina Baran and Salim Hammad manipulate them so cleverly that every gesture appears natural to the point one forgets they are craved blocks of wood.
Baran infuses Gretel with a gentle courage that warms the heart and Hammad's Hansel is a bit of a goofball, but his portrayal of the eccentric gingerbread witch is quite delicious and garnered a lot of laughs.
Under the Stars is a simple story with many layers that shows us how similar we are and how much we have in common.
– Anna Borowiecki
Suggested ages: 5 and over
There's a certain ridiculousness to Robert Munsch stories that kids just love. They may be munchkins in the real world, but Munsch depicts children that are heroes rescuing their goofball parents.
For kids, that's comforting. The feel empowered and parents are only too happy to laugh at themselves.
That's exactly what happens in Magical Munsch – a string of five Munsch classic tales – Angela's Airplane, 50 Below Zero, More Pies, Moira's Birthday and Alligator Baby.
Sitting beside the stage is a human narrator telling stories while the action happens on stage from larger-than-usual Muppet style hand puppets. Not only are the puppeteers extremely skilled at creating human-like gestures and expressions, but they also keep the action moving at a solid clip.
It's a very intimate setting as puppets chat, scold and poke fun at the narrator. And from the get-go, the narrator invites audience involvement prompting lots of shouts from kids.
Each tale has its own life lesson laced with such gentle humour. Yet it is so easy on the eyes you never notice the teaching element. After the show, people filing out had big grins on their faces, a killer indication Magical Munsch is worth the ticket price.
– Anna Borowiecki
