LITTLE DICKENS: THE DAISY THEATRE

A Christmas Carol as you've never seen it before, performed by the colourful cast of The Daisy Theatre, a travelling marionette improvised cabaret show...

Disclaimer: I am a big Ronnie Burkett fan, so I am biased. But please don't be put off by the puppets. This is NOT a kid's show. Think more x-rated pantomime than children's theatre. Ronnie Burkett's energy and cheeky charm infuses the characters all of his painstakingly created marionettes. With their help, and some participation of the audience, he reminds us of the spirit of the holiday season with a very loose interpretation of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.

Despite having a cold, Burkett jumps between character voices with lightning speed and with impressive vocal range. He has a beautiful singing voice as well as a knack for comedic character voices. It's all a little meta, and the layers of reality often overlap, with characters getting distracted by events in-world, or engaging in hilarious arguments with their puppeteer.

Raunchy and irreverent, this piece is surprisingly inclusive in it's humour. The content is perhaps not for the prude or extremely pious (or for the puppet-phobic), but the distance created by the layers of reality allows us to laugh at and with these characters in a way that never feels anything less than gentle and  welcoming.

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A hilariously sexy, endearing, interactive, heartwarming romp, Little Dickens: The Daisy Theatre is playing at the Cultch Historic until 22 December 2018.

Tickets at: https://thecultch.com/events/little-dickens-the-daisy-theatre/

~ reviewed by Danielle Benzon