The House Where Winter Lives
Punchdrunk Enrichment, with its proven track record of creating absorbing storytelling adventures for children in schools, parks and markets, has found its spiritual home. The basement of Discover has been Narnia-ed into a forest for family groups to venture through. The journey Punchdrunk has imagined into this magical space is a very beguiling show.
Families are welcomed into the snug kitchen of Mr and Mrs Winter, where children sit around the table and roll gingerbread dough. Parents perch on worktops gazing fondly at their progeny rolling and squishing dough along with their hosts. Designers George Ellison and Sean Turner have created a wonderful winter world. When the back door is thrown open to reveal woodland, with bosky tunnels created from tightly knitted pine boughs, the effect is enchanting. Each new venue seems more dramatically detailed and magical than the last, until we sit in a snowy glade to hear the tale of Jack Frost told by a Snowman puppet created with great ingenuity before our eyes.
Matthew Blake and Frances Moulds as the Winter couple are charismatic, ditsy and playful, adept at fielding their followers’ questions and suggestions while guiding them along the narrative trail. This is story-time at its best: inspirational.
