The Stage

The Singing Kettle - Pirate Island

Published Friday 1 August 2008 at 15:35 by Thom Dibdin

With the cry of “Spout, handle, lid of metal,” what’s inside the Singing Kettle is revealed to be a formula for children’s entertainment that is as full of vibrant potential as it was when it started out some 30 years ago. Unfortunately, while this remains a great sing-along show with all the right elements of audience interaction, the same could not be said for all the cast.

Whatever the simple plot - here the crew are castaways on Pirate Island and have lost their singing kettles - the core of a Singing Kettle show is the sequence when one of the kettles is opened to reveal clues to a song. It is crucial to the theatre of the piece that this moment of revelation is approached in a manner that gives the audience a sense of anticipation. If it isn’t, and in this show it rarely is, the whole production becomes flat.

In particular, Cilla Fisher is much happier when the simple plot gives her the chance to get back to her folk-singing roots with a tongue-twisting lyric than during this supposedly magical moment. She’s also happy to appear on stage still chewing toffees so she can’t actually pick up her cue.

Fellow founding members Artie Trezise and musician Gary Coupland approach the production with a much greater sense of professionalism and an infectious feeling for the fun of the whole piece. It is relative newcomer Kevin Macleod who has the most vibrant on-stage appearance, however, really engaging with an audience who deserve a show that actually reaches its potential.