Theatre Guide London Review
The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk Traverse@Scottish Book Trust ****
The very model of audience-capturing storytelling, this is a well-written and excitingly performed tale that kids can recognise and respond to, and a cleverly open-ended conclusion gives them something to think and talk about afterwards. Created by Andy Manley, Bill Robertson and Rob Evans, directed by Robertson and performed by Manley, it is the easy-to-relate-to story of the new kids in school, frozen out by the cool kids and bullies and pushed into a special friendship until one betrays the other just by becoming popular. Constantly moving around the room, between and among the listening children (When performing in classrooms, he roams the aisles and climbs on desks) and pausing to make eye contact with every one of them so this becomes somebody telling you personally a great story and not some impersonal performance, Manley narrates in a rush of enthusiasm, playing every role (The kids love the snooty girl and the satirised teachers). He never forces the moral about loyalty, letting the story make it, and by ending with an ambiguity – the two former friends meet as grown-ups, and will they be friends again? – he leaves it to the kids to think and debate out the story's meanings. Gerald Berkowitz
The very model of audience-capturing storytelling, this is a well-written and excitingly performed tale that kids can recognise and respond to, and a cleverly open-ended conclusion gives them something to think and talk about afterwards. Created by Andy Manley, Bill Robertson and Rob Evans, directed by Robertson and performed by Manley, it is the easy-to-relate-to story of the new kids in school, frozen out by the cool kids and bullies and pushed into a special friendship until one betrays the other just by becoming popular. Constantly moving around the room, between and among the listening children (When performing in classrooms, he roams the aisles and climbs on desks) and pausing to make eye contact with every one of them so this becomes somebody telling you personally a great story and not some impersonal performance, Manley narrates in a rush of enthusiasm, playing every role (The kids love the snooty girl and the satirised teachers). He never forces the moral about loyalty, letting the story make it, and by ending with an ambiguity – the two former friends meet as grown-ups, and will they be friends again? – he leaves it to the kids to think and debate out the story's meanings. Gerald Berkowitz