There’s more than one super furry animal powering this lively adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ picture book. Gruff Rhys provides the score but there’s a supporting cast of cuddly plush seagull puppets as well as a huggable penguin with velvety flippers and a coat that seems to comprise hundreds of shower poufs.
The gulls, operated by a gang of fisherfolk musician-puppeteers, start by giving the young audience a friendly peck, swiping a teacher’s woolly hat – to the delight of their school group – and threatening to slurp someone’s coffee. Under Olly Taylor’s puppetry direction, they fittingly keep a constant presence in this seaside tale, their squawks accompanying Rhys’s score which is a buoyant mix of folk, funk – for a bathtub scene with glittery soapsuds – and ambient sounds evoking the ocean’s open wonder, heightened by Jai Morjaria’s lighting.
Director Will Brenton’s adaptation follows Jeffers’ original scene by scene and unlike many hourlong picture-book adaptations never drags or goes off course. The friendship between the boy and the penguin who appears at his front door blossoms more swiftly, and there’s a clearer message about teamwork, as audience members are invited on stage to launch the boat to the South Pole. (Nice to see a Christmas show about the other pole.)
Jeffers’ book is dialogue-free and the adaptation could often do without its script, such is the quality of Rhys’s compositions (musical direction by Jordan Li-Smith), Alexandra Faye Braithwaite’s sound design, Jess Williams’s movement direction and the impressively expressive performances by Richard Hay as the Boy and, inside the penguin suit, Lydia Baksh. Adding often straightforward dialogue slightly demystifies Jeffers’ story about aiming and failing to connect.
A wide stage in this new venue’s Hall theatre has backdrop projections by Keyframe Studios that provide such a sense of scale for the journey that the additional use of miniature puppets for the plucky adventurers is unnecessary. The superb set design by Jean Chan (who also provides costumes) combines nautical and industrial elements, with giant waves of detritus including netting and piping. There is a pleasing unity in the materials: the lost property officer’s hair seems to be made from bath poufs, too.
Produced by Factory International, it’s a sweet, fun and carefully crafted show that recognises the panto potential (“he’s behind you!”) in the unlikely duo’s climactic search for each other. And controlled by the cheery team of Susie Barrett, Gus Barry, Ronan Cullen, Pena Iiyambo, Gemma Khawaja and Rayo Patel, these cheeky seagulls even put the “aw” into squawk.
At Aviva Studios, Manchester, until 6 January
