“Black Beauty”

Djaonogly Theatre, Lakeside, Nottingham.

The Red Bridge Arts & Traverse Theatre Company in association with Nottingham Lakeside Arts present an alternative to the standard Christmas panto fare with this play surrounding the Black Beauty book. The McCuddy Brothers play out scenes from the book.

This all comes about because the McCuddy’s, both called Andy, are sorting out bits and bobs to sell to try and get a bit of money in, because times are hard, so they go through their horse box they call home and in their search, they find the Anna Sewell classic novel which once belonged to their mother.

This pair of equine illusionist, panto horse to you and I,find out that panto cows are now the "in thing". Neigh! I hear you cry, surely not, but, as mother used to say,

there are good days and there are bad days, so surely, good days can't be too far away.....aren't they?

This clever piece of theatre especially, but not exclusively aimed at children by the award winning Director,Creator and Writer Andy Manley, a sure fire thoroughbred when it comes to children’s theatre, along with Andy Cannon and Shona Reppe, Shona also also designed the set and was Co-Creator. I say that this isn’t exclusively for children because this is a treat for all ages from three years old to one hundred and three years old.

The humour will be appreciated by all ages and the puppetry creates magic in the eyes of the young, and not as young, audience members. There aren’t that many pieces of theatre where you can go as a family and everyone enjoy what they see on stage, but I believe that this is one of them.

I'm not going to give any spoilers but there are definite nods to the kind of children's TV of old, with smatterings of mime and circus skills. The way that they use parts of the set in different ways is magical. One prime example involves one of the two Andys being a pregnant woman. I'm saying no more than that but it's simple but very clever theatre, plus the timing between Andy 1 and Andy 2 is really well executed.

What also makes this piece of theatre so special is the sound design (Dave Trouton) and the lighting design (Simon Wilkinson).

I know that I loved it and by the reaction from the audience, of variable age groups, they also loved the gentle comedy and clever story,which also uses local references to make the story even more region related..

You’d be a foal to miss this family show so trot down to Lakeside and treat your family to a bit of excellent equine entertainment.This play could just make your Christmas that little bit more special.

John Currivan plays wee Andy and Paul Curley plays the older Andy brother.

“Black Beauty” is at The Djanogly Theatre at Lakeside on various dates up to Sunday 31 December 2017 so please go to the Lakeside website, www.lakesidearts.org.uk/BlackBeauty, to check the times and days.