I read Michael Morpurgo's "The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips" when it first came out and found it, as is usual for this consumate storyteller, a sad and engaging tale. Whilst I had already known about te Slapton Sands disaster(s) this book's personalisation of the tragedy brought its true horrors home. As so often happens in war, young men had died as a result of little more than confusion and crossed wires - they are as much our war dead and heros as those who died facing the enemy and having their story told like this brings them from a sorry little footnote of history into the place they deserve.
The renaming of the story to "946" puts the soldiers centre of the narrative, though Tips is still a core character to the telling - and this is how it should be. The adaptation by Morpurgo himself and the director Emma Rice is played in the tented Asylum at the Lost Gardens of Heligan - a field of mud when we visited more reminiscent of a First Wolrd War trench but livened by a great bar, BBQ and "foyer tent".
This is Kneehigh at its best, theatrical, fun, fast and entertaining but at the same time imparting a hard story with compassion. We care deeply about all the characters, even when we laugh at them, we sense the war just over the horizon and we feel te pain of separation that these characters feel as they are ripped from their homes - as all seem to be, the displaced Jewish French teacher, the father at war, the evacuees, the American soldiers, Tips, the people of Slapton - all are lost and searching for some comfort.
Great music, clever puppetry and lighthearted choreography drive the story forward with particularly strong performances from Katy Owen as Lily and Nandi Bhebhe as Harry/Tips - but it is the ensemble work (including the tech and stage team) that shines through, Kneehigh doing what it has become rightly famous for. I loved it, very minute.
I understand that this show may be touring next year, I do hope so, I will see it again and would urge others to go if they can - this is a particularly family friendly show that everyone can enjoy.
p.s. After te show was over, the standing ovation finished and people were leaving I saw Katy Owen quietly climb the ladder to recover one of the Tips puppets, walking into the wings at the back of the stage, unseen perhaps by anyone but me as I waited to leave my seat carrying it in her arms she bent her head and gently kissed its head ...
