Padhraig Nolan's Blog

Paper Capers!


















Total and Utter Chaos! Bedlam! Rí Rá agus Rúile Búile...
...and then some!

I was back at the Pavilion Theatre on Saturday last for Paper World, a gem of a show by Mimirichi, a touring company of Ukrainian clowns (I kid you not!) who created a blithely manic world for a rowdy and appreciative audience of adults and children. Paper World is part of the inaugural Flip Flop International Children's Theatre Festival at the Pavilion and bodes well for the future.

Large paper backdrops literally set the scene (paper courtesy of Datapac, Enniscorthy and The Event Guide and props of all scales and sizes were fashioned ad hoc from the same material. These were utilised with immense creativity (and abandon) to frame a delightfully surreal narrative, flipping from shadow play to mime to slapstick to dance to football(!) and far, far beyond. Audience participation was irreverantly pursued and consistently effective, with children baying in delight as parents were randomly and skilfully tomfooled into proceedings both on and off the stage.

The adults and children in our group enjoyed it immensely - with only the very youngest becoming uncomfortable on occasion, as the anarchy approached tipping point. After the show, the majority of children spilling out of the theatre seemed to bear their own malleable souvenir stash of semi-destroyed newsheet as testament to a show which, no doubt, continued to riot in young imaginations all the way home.

Flip Flop is running for the rest of the week with equally charming shows by Corona la Balance from Denmark and Ireland's own Monkeyshine Theatre, with their show GrimmJamm which gets down and delerious with some favourite Grimm Brothers tales.

It's perfect timing to start building that Halloween vibe, so grab a young relative (gently, of course) and get thee down to the Pavilion, while the lunacy prevails! Nyam Nyam!