The 52-Storey Treehouse

The long line of young children patiently waiting to have their books autographed after the show by children’s author superstar Andy Griffiths made you realise what a phenomenon this writer has become.

The book signings – advertised in advance on his website - are well drilled, no selfies, no personal messages and the line will only go for one hour.

Time is short when your imagination is always running wild and you are working on the next blockbuster.

The basis for the Treehouse series, first 13, then 26-storey and so forth is the escapades of two characters, Andy and Terry (named after the author and illustrator), and the adventures they get up to.

Each time the treehouse becomes ever more technologically advanced and stories more exotic. This means that adapting the books to the stage is almost impossible.

So the first bravo must go to the adapter Richard Tulloch for condensing the story into a digestible one-hour frolic and including a few very hummable tunes along the way.

In this play young Andy and Terry (Drew Livingston and James Elliot) are searching for their book publisher (Johnny Nasser), who has mysteriously disappeared after publishing a book which had recipes involving vegetables. The brave duo must slice and dice their way through a range of obstacles to find him, assisted and foiled along the way by Sophie Kesteven.

There were a few gee whiz looking machines, the occasional nod to pantomime and the trademark Andy Griffiths fart joke.

In my group Grandma had a barrel of fun, my almost 12 year old daughter was all smiles but thought she was just a fraction too old for it and I was thoroughly entertained.

Long may the Treehouse get planning approval for ever more extensions.

David Spicer

Images: Drew Livingston as Terry & James Elliott as Andy and Sophie Kesteven as Jill. Photographer Branco Gaica.