Once upon a time? What a tedious way to begin a story say the cast of this irresistible new show by Kneehigh founder Mike Shepherd, his first since the mighty Cornish theatre company disbanded last summer. Before it even kicks off, Calvino Nights has pyrotechnics and flag waving, music and dancing, with actors prowling through the crowd trying to swindle us. They are latterday versions of Crack, Crook and Hook, the crafty trio whose deceptions are recounted in the Italo Calvino collection of Italian folk tales that inspired the evening. “We’re robbers, we’re rogues, we’re thieves,” they chant roisterously. To make it clear: “We nick stuff!”
In Shepherd’s show – co-directed with Elayce Ismail and co-written with Carl Grose, Anna Maria Murphy and Tim Dalling – it is as if the stories slowly bloom up among the cast, much like the set seems to have grown from the ground. Ladders are entwined with branches in a pyre designed by Luke Wood and decorated with weathered instruments and sculptures of animal heads. Inside it, a live band make merry. Any show staged at the open air, clifftop Minack has instant atmosphere – the backdrop is the Atlantic Ocean – but Calvino Nights fully utilises the setting. It’s theatre that sharpens the senses.
