by Sarah Cope
I have come to the conclusion that there are two types of shows put on for children. There is the type of show that takes into account the particular needs and foibles of this audience. The cast and the director will realise that children need short, snappy scenes, visual splendour and clear delivery. They need the action to be bold and they need to be seated in a way that takes into account their small stature. It seems obvious really, but then there is the other type of show…
This category of children’s show neglects all of the above, and as a result fails to engage its audience, leaving parents wondering how they could have better spent the ticket fee and also the time. Unfortunately, French Tales at the Institut Francais falls, in my opinion, most distinctly into the latter category.
The Institut is putting on different stories and plays each Saturday, so judging the calibre of every performance just by last Saturday’s show is perhaps not entirely fair; we can only hope that this was a blip in an otherwise marvellous season.
On arrival at the Institut Francais, signs were not good. People queued, unsure what they were queuing for, whilst children whined and misbehaved. So far, so bad. When the show eventually started, it became clear that it was to be staged in various different locations within the Institut, which meant following a “tour guide” around the building. This is never going to be easy with children, especially when, as we were at two points, positioned on some stairs for a whole scene.
My four-year-old mainly saw the backs of adults’ legs, and could hear very little. Sitting down on the floor, she whispered “Can we go home now?” I knew how she felt.
The premise was that our hapless ‘tour guide’ was showing us the palace where Sleeping Beauty had lived, but that things kept going wrong. At one point, two very stereotypical young female Japanese tourists interrupted the show, yelping “Photo! Photo!” One middle-class parent muttered to another middle-class parent “Well, that’s a bit…”, the unsaid word being ‘racist’. Yes, it was a bit.
After half an hour or so of following our ‘tour guide’ as she pretended that things were going very wrong (she really didn’t need to pretend!), my daughter and I cut our losses and left.
Back to the drawing board, Institut Francais.
Saturday French Tales continues throughout March.
March 20, 2011 at
I just wanted to add, having re-read your article, about the comment about the “asian photographers” joke being racist, that it would have been racist if it was British or French actors playing them with make-up, but they were played by Asian actors with humour.