WHEN a two and a half year-old little girl’s attention span exceeds 45 minutes, one realizes there is something special going on.

This is what happened at the Proteus Creation Space.

Joining in with the dialogue, almost all the way through, was part of the charm and the little girl and the other children there had absolutely no problem whatsoever in understanding penguin or reindeer language! The adults in the audience did not do too badly either. 

Actor and co-devisor of the show Umar Ahmed has a beautiful bass-baritone voice and he had found numerous different ways of saying the name Steve so that we knew exactly what he was feeling. There was pathos, humour, every emotion you could think of, just by changing the intonation of his voice and his physical appearance – very clever!

Becky Barry, playing Rosie the reindeer in a wonderful sparkly costume with purple hair, had a balletic approach to her characterization; she was also co-devisor and totally mesmerising. The aerial choreographer Lorraine Moynehan had devised some amazing acrobatics using swathes of cloth attached to the beams of the old Victorian school.

I doubt if the Grade-II listed building sees anything like that too often but, Proteus Theatre Company has, for many years under the direction of Mary Swan, been very interested in circus skills; you can always rely on her to be innovative, which is very refreshing.

Sam Pine, the designer, has designed 17 shows for Proteus and the way the design of this show changed the Addison Studio (recently renamed) into a winter wonderland was enchanting, and probably on a very small budget too.

I really liked the idea of the recorded voice of a seven year-old, Mary’s daughter Sophie Wild, telling the story of the adorable little penguin and her sister, Poppy Wild, singing on the soundtrack too.

Paul Wild devised the music in collaboration with the actor/musicians; I would have enjoyed a few more songs but this would have lengthened the show and the timing for children under eight years of age was just right.

Proteus hope to devise a show for this age group every Christmas now that they have their own performance space whilst continuing to tour all over Hampshire and beyond.

If you missed Brrr!, you can still catch up with Alice on tour – or wait patiently for the next magical production!

Hannah Williams   

Tickets are available for remaining performances from the box office on 01256 321621.