On Saturday, me and Matilda headed into Birmingham to Birmingham Repertory Theatre to watch First Stages: Uncle’s Story Shop.
There were two showings, one at 11:30am and one at 2pm. Both sessions lasting 60 minutes each and costing £10 per ticket.
We arrived at 11:15am, had our tickets checked and were told to wait in the foyer as the show would start in the foyer at 11:30am.
At 11:30am, Uncle came out to greet everyone and welcomed us into The Door auditorium. The interactive theatre performance by The Playhouse, Birmingham, had started.
Matilda giggled and laughed and was excited to meet Uncle. Whispering in my ear “he is funny”.
We sat down in the theatre, as Uncle said hello to everyone and introduced his Story Shop (whilst trying to find his key for the shop… Leaving the children in hysterics).
News arrives in the post, of Big Tower’s plan to redevelop the town, resulting in the need to knock down Uncle’s Story Shop to build a big tower.
This is awful as Uncle’s Story Shop is full of wonderful and exciting items to entice children’s fascination and attention, they are picked and placed into bags to make story bags for his customers.
Uncle invites the children into his shop where they all sit on the two rugs, listening to the awful news of the development plans and hearing Uncle tell a number of fascinating and fun stories, giving children the chance to describe items, storytell themselves, explain what they see and mostly use their imagination.
Uncle asked six children to go and choose an item each for his story bag, using some fantastic imagination, he creates mini stories using the items that the children picked, whilst allowing and encouraging the children to join in too.
There was singing, dancing, running, responding to music, laughing, spoken language, describing, explaining, storytelling and a whole lot of fun.
The children had to help Uncle to persuade the developers to keep his shop and I think they managed to do just that.
Encouraging the audience to create new stories, this unique, interactive theatre experience is different every time and is perfect for families.
Matilda really enjoyed herself, laughing throughout the show, dancing on the set and joining in with the storytelling. Uncle was fantastic at encouraging children to join in and was great at ensuring everyone had a go and no one took over centre stage. Matilda got to meet Uncle when the production finished (he encourages people to come and have photos taken) and enjoyed telling him that her favourite stories are her Paw Patrol ones.
As an adult, I enjoyed plenty of the show, laughing quite a lot myself. And this theatre company had definitely taken the time to ensure adults enjoyed the show too. Uncle’s quick thinking throughout the show was enjoyable to watch too. It is quite a talent to have.
Aimed at ages 4-7 (KS1) this is a perfect introduction to theatre for Children and would be a valuable production to book into your school as a special treat. If you would like to do that, you can email bookings@theplayhouse.org.uk.