Silly Billy

Published Thursday 4 October 2007 at 16:15 by Kevin Berry

Silly Billy is a worrier. He cannot sleep. He worries about hats and shoes and clouds and then the things in grandma’s house.

Happily grandma sorts him out, as grandmas do. She gives him some Maya worry dolls. Each doll, she tells him, will take care of one of his worries. But then Billy makes paper worry dolls for the worry dolls because he feels sorry for them. Soon there are lines of paper dolls across his bedroom.

Tutti Frutti’s adaptation of Anthony Browne’s hugely popular book is utterly enchanting in a way that the very young will appreciate. Laura Freeman and Stewart Thomas play Billy’s mother and father with infectious joy. Elliot Quinn is a marvellously sympathetic Billy. When he hides under the bedclothes we can all share his fears.

Freeman also plays granny and watching her simply slip into a housecoat and become granny is magical.

What makes this staging so special is the choreography, from Joanne Moven, and Ivan Stott’s music. Classic, soft shoe steps and fantasy dances abound, such as a gorgeous sequence in which Billy watches as his mother and father pluck a variety of hats from stands and make them soar above him.

Alison Heffernan’s attractive bedroom set has its dominant colours neatly reversed when Billy is in Grandma’s house. This is inspiring theatre. Fun, funny and reassuring. When it’s over everyone gets a souvenir worry doll, not a paper one, to take home. Even this reviewer.