Unity Theatre has a long and happy association with both Liverpool-based physical theatre company Teatro Pomodoro and with Ellesmere Port’s Theatre Porto (formerly Action Transport Theatre), the companies jointly responsible for creating Star of Wonder for Porto’s opening season in 2022.
Here at Unity for a very brief run, this has to take the prize as the best show of the season for young children, as well as being an absolute delight for all ages.
Like a flurry of parachute silk, Cathy Cross’s stage design transforms itself under Phil Saunder’s lighting and a series of animated projections, from a billowing sky to a Bedouin tent-like cocoon, beneath which a cast of five set out on an adventure.
Three friends are following a star across an ever changing landscape, beset by a picaresque series of events, from a flock of bleating sheep, a couple of marauding shepherds, difficult terrain and stormy weather. They don’t always see eye to eye and have a few fallings out along the way, but eventually they seem to find whatever it was that they weren’t even sure they were looking for, and regain friendship again.
A shopping trolley becomes their trusty chariot across mountains, and transforms itself into a shelter to weather a desert night (such is the strength of the imagery that this last mentioned segment strangely recalled for this reviewer a spectacular transformation scene from an English National Opera production of The Pearl Fishers many years ago!)
Almost certainly helped by the fact that the show was devised following workshops with primary school children, the narrative, whilst being wildly unpredictable, remains absolutely lucid and completely absorbing. With the exception of the occasional utterance, the entire show is performed wordlessly, relying entirely on mime, music, clowning and physical performance, which makes it universal in its appeal and renders it totally accessible.
Jordan Connerty, Miwa Nagai and Nikki Hill are our intrepid trio of travellers, whilst Carmen Arquelladas and Simone Tani appear as sheep, shepherds, and even a camel. Their delivery of the magical storytelling is absolutely flawless under the wonderfully crafted direction of Nina Hajiyianni, and everything is underpinned by a musical score from Patrick Dineen that comes straight out of a fairytale.
From toddlers near the front itching to get onto the stage, to excited voices further back of children explaining the action to parents or egging the characters on, the audience are absolutely agog, and that includes all the adults as well as the children. This is 50 minutes of theatre that brings an entire room together in the shared world of the imagination, and those of us who thought we had grown up decades ago are children again for a while. I have never seen so many adults react quite so emotionally to a scene with a teddy bear in which… well… that would be telling, and there are going to be no spoilers here.
It is impossible to fault anything in this joyous piece of creativity, which creates a big world out of almost nothing in an intimate space, and has everyone suspend disbelief for one magical hour together.
After a series of dedicated schools performances this week, aimed at reception to KS2, there are two further public performances at Unity on Saturday at 11am and 2pm, with tickets available here.
Star rating: 5 stars
Production pictures by AB Photography
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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