Reviews

Grown-ups will be familiar with this sweet story, either from Dick King-Smith’s 1983 novel, The Sheep-Pig, or the award-winning movie, Babe (Chris Noonan 1995), but this 1998 stage adaptation by David Wood, running just on an hour, works a treat for the small fry.  My companion – granddaughter, age 6 – sat entranced and smiling throughout, with total concentration.

Salty is rooted in Singapore-Malay mythology, with the title based on the Singaporean belief that salt is the currency of the afterlife.

Written and performed mostly by Shannan Lim (Jayde Harding and Tye Norman are co-writers), Salty is a play cycle based on folk tales – given a modern context and personal twist.

In “Toyal”, a lonely widower keeps a stillborn baby – but Toyal can move and think and just wants to be loved. Shannan Lim plays the baby with energy and verve.

Malaysian composer Nick Choo makes his FringeWorld debut with this classy little show featuring four very short musicals in concert form.

Accompanied by the personable Nick Choo himself, who gives a little background to each piece, extra musical depth is added by Emily Gelineu on violin.

Growing up on an indigenous reservation in Canada is not much different, it seems, from growing up on similar reservations in other countries. Cut off and isolated from the mainstream by legislation, distance and lack of opportunity, some adults turn to drink and abuse. Kids ‘huff’ (sniff) gasoline, sneak porn magazines and find a secret place to read them – in this case, an abandoned motel – a place to hide from the realities of a dysfunctional world. But wherever they go the ‘Trickster’ – bad luck, misfortune, adversity – finds them.