A Small Mind At The Theatre

I first saw a show from Munchkins & Monsters during the 2016 local Northampton Umbrella Fair and their lively tale, Back In Time For Breakfast managed to keep an audience enthralled for an hour in a tent on a swelteringly hot August day, so with that achievement under the belt, it was clear they were doing something very right. As it turned out, the day that I saw this, their show entitled The Reluctant Dragon , the temperature wasn't a great deal cooler, but the lack of the tent meant we didn't get quite cook, even if the performers clearly did during this occasionally very energetic show. The scene for the performance is set with a simple and clear staging of sheets with cartoon landscape, and puppets and cardboard towers hinting of what is to come. After the piping in of medieval music as we take our seats, our performers of Dale Forder, Hannah Conway and Laura Richardson take to the stage with all the suitable enthusiasm to try to keep an audience of children captivat...

Munchkins and Monsters Theatre Company had what I personally consider two of the toughest audiences to keep entertained; a bunch of four, five, six, and whatever year olds gathered in a constantly distracting and sweltering tent with rock music emanating from another nearby tent; and myself surrounded by aforementioned children and in that sweltering tent. They had much to do to keep us absorbed in their performance of Back In Time For Breakfast. I have to say though thats against my fears at the start, very surprisingly this lively show managed to do just that, and for the best part me included. Trapped in a secluded lighthouse with her family, Millie (Laura Richardson) dreams of magical journeys and on one night with a little wish on a star, a mysterious traveler, Jasper (Dale Forder) crashes his flying ship on the island and that magical journey becomes a reality. This little piece has been lovingly created to encapture perhaps everything required of a children's entertainme...