Review: Underneath a Magical Moon Playhouse, Sheffield

Slapstick panto is all well and (very) good, but loud shouts of ‘behind you’ and spooky ghost gag benches aren’t for every small child.

Just as well there’s another seasonal show, more gentle, just as festive, to captivate the little ones this Christmas.

Underneath a Magical Moon is a sweet, sentimental, delightful musical play which reimagines the tale of Peter Pan, as told by Wendy Darling.

Three talented actors and musicians – Rachel Hammond, Alex Wingfield, and Robert Wade, accomplished at clarinet, sax and harmonising singing as well as acting packed with physicality – play the parts of three young siblings, camping out in their back garden and using imaginative play to bring the roles of Wendy, Peter, Hook et al, to life.

Talented actors and musicians Alex Wingfield, Rachel Hammond and Robert Wade

The props are pared back and simple – a makeshift tent thrown together from bedsheets and poles; sleeping bags that flap into mermaids’ fishy tails; two garden rakes and plant pots that become the snapping jaws and fiendish eyes of the ‘clockadile’ who torments Hook.

But there are some fantastical details too that will send your little ones wide-eyed with amazement – how did the actors manage to catch and balance the flying green light that represented a glowing Tinkerbell!?

One of the wondrous appeals of shows in the Playhouse is walking to your seating through the floor level stage – so you can pause a while to peep at the scenery and even let the children have a photo beneath the magical moon on your way out.

The play, presented by Leeds-based Tutti Frutti theatre company (and heading off to tour the US for 13 weeks after Sheffield, starting in Florida!) was written by acclaimed children’s playwright Mike Kenny, and there’s some subtle complexity and feminism among the child-level magic.

Underneath a Magical Moon is at the Playhouse, Sheffield, until Tuesday, December 31

Wendy isn’t just narrator, teller of stories, and play-loving child, but also mother to the lost boys, sister to her little brothers, and perhaps a future mum herself, whose own mum has grown up to forget the magic of play (buried deep beneath the mental load, no doubt).

Perhaps among the acres of wrapping paper, shopping lists, house cleaning and sprout-peeling we can all make time to remember our inner child this Christmas?

Certainly Underneath a Magical Moon is a start – an immersive way to share the magic of theatre with small children, and the perfectly pitched hour-long show a heart-warming production, full of fun, to take them to.

Underneath a Magical Moon is at the Playhouse, Sheffield, until Tuesday, December 31.