I have not told my nieces what Grandad Anansi is about but they stop by the poster outside the Half Moon theatre and begin piecing things together for themselves. “Is it a Halloween show? Will there be spiders?” asks seven-year-old Eva, pointing to the spider dangling beside a picture of the grandfather.
She is only half wrong. The show, written by Elayne Ogbeta and staged as part of Black History Month, is about intergenerational love and the Windrush generation. Ogbeta incorporates the legend of Anansi, a part human spider from west African and Caribbean folklore, into the story of a grandfather (Marcus Hercules) who is finding a way to tell his granddaughter Abi (Jazmine Wilkinson) that he is leaving Britain to return to Jamaica.
Eva nods wisely as we enter the theatre and find a giant spider squatting on the garden shed in one corner of a verdant set designed by Sorcha Corcoran. The show is for children aged between four and nine, but Martha, 11, has accompanied Eva and seems as taken by the flora. “I love the detail,” she says, while Eva wonders if the sunflowers are real or fake.
In a production directed by Chris Yarnell, Grandad is a green-fingered, spritely man in purple trousers, tending his beloved garden and enacting Anansi stories with Abi along with gentle song and dance. There is talk of Abi’s late grandmother, who is in the “allotment in the sky”, and Abi worries Grandad’s secret is that he is ill, soon to join her there, but neither Martha nor Eva seem troubled by that.
Eva, in fact, is too busy guessing what will come next in the storyline. “He doesn’t want to tell her he’s leaving,” she says, knowingly, and then when he finally reveals his news, she confirms: “See? Abi’s fine with it!”
There is a storm which leaves the garden a wreck and the untidiness upsets both girls. Close to the end, Grandad’s suitcase snaps open to reveal a crop of yellow bobbing flowers to signify his joyful return to Jamaica and it delights the girls immensely.
While Eva murmurs comments and questions over the course of the play, Martha piles in at the end with a surprisingly expansive summary. “I liked it because it said a lot about nature and for the stories it told about Jamaican culture.”
Both girls are far more accustomed to big West End shows and I am surprised to see that Martha has clocked that this is a very different proposition. “For a cute local theatre this is a colourful, amazing production,” she tells her sister, and this proud aunt spots a discerning critic in the making.
• Grandad Anansi is touring until 30 October.
