Here’s a new play with so many fun ideas that, like the suitcase centre-stage, it’s almost bursting. Scuba gear and toys are crammed in for Elias and his mum’s trip to Jamaica, where Grandad is spending his first Christmas without Grandma. Montego Bay will be an adventure but will Santa know where Elias is? That particularly fraught festive combo of excitement and apprehension is immediately established for playwright Yasmin Joseph’s characters, including Elias’s unseen dad who will be home alone in Stockwell.
Amelia Jane Hankin’s dynamic set design, with a stripes and slats theme, transports us from airport to plane – where we become fellow passengers – and on to Grandad’s veranda. Ola Ince’s pacy production, for audiences aged three to six, opens with a dialogue-free sequence before exploding with cartoonish flourishes and zany ear-popping effects (sound design by Ed Lewis). Simeon Miller’s lighting evokes not just the Jamaican temperature and the winter wonderland of the colourful Mo-Bay market but also the warmth within this reconnected family.
