SalfordOnline.com Rating: 4 out of 5
Meeting Mr Boom is a new dance piece for children created by Darren Ellis and performed on a specially designed inflatable set with three wide-eyed characters going on a number of surreal journeys of discovery.
The music is lively and cheerful and puts you in a happy mood for the 50 minute performance.
The theatre was very intimate and only had about 35 children in the audience which made it very exciting and much more personable.
The scene is set with a young girl asleep on a slab of rubber, soon to be magically transported to an exciting new world which is constantly moving. She meets new friends that guide her on a journey of transformation.
The first 20 minutes include three large shapes, a circle, a triangle and a crescent moon, being used by each of the characters as they put together scenes of fishing trips, sharks, a man dancing and many others.
This gives the audience the opportunity to use their imagination before a number of colourful plastic tubes are brought into the performance making abstract music when banged together or on each other’s heads.
Then to our surprise the slab of rubber they are all standing on suddenly blows up to become a bouncy blue island with inflated abstract designs.
The excitement in the children’s faces in the audience is magical and it feels like the show has really began as the stage is transformed.
The inflatable set has all three characters involved in lots of exaggerated falls with bouncy recovery, lots of cheerful jumps and hops and an audience filled with plenty of giggles and laughs.
This is a magical music and dance show for all ages.
Everyone that’s seen the set has been desperate to get on and bounce around and that exactly what all the children in the audience do at the end of the show.
This was a really special touch and many of the children will relate to the shows themes.
It was lovely to watch the big smiles on their faces bouncing around and was the highlight of the show for my son.
