The Deep

Often children’s theatre is fast and furious, flamboyant and funny. While highly entertaining and certainly amusing, The Deep is almost the antithesis of most theatre for kids - gentle and relaxed and quietly beautiful.

The Deep was first performed by Spare Parts over a decade ago, but this version is a remained and updated incarnation.

The puppets range from clever hand puppets (including a particularly lovable crab and endearing dog), through a variety of rod and wearable puppets and all are beautifully constructed and cleverly designed. The actor operators are very personable, with Michael Barlow, Jacob Lehrer and Shirley Van Sanden (who was an original cast member) creating multiple, distinct, characters. Katya Shevtsov who plays the central character, Alice, creates a wonderful child to whom both children and adults in the audience can relate. Her classical dance skills are used to excellent effect.

While the expertly choreographed extended movement sequences delighted most of the audience, including my twelve year old companion, they were not universally appreciated, with a young lad behind me complaining loudly that it was "really boring", but even he declared the performance as a whole to be "pretty good". I strongly suspect that ten year old boys are the toughest theatrical critics on earth, so I consider this high praise.

The Deep is well worth diving into for anyone, especially those who can find a four to twelve year old to take with them. It's beautiful, cool underwater scenes will be a perfect antidote to a hot summer's day.

Kimberley Shaw