Darlington Hippodrome – until Sunday 24 July 2022
5*****
It’s normal, as a reviewer, to have people wanting to attend a show with you. Today at Zog I had to take my 23 year old son and 29 year old daughter because they were arguing about who was going to come with me. So thank you to the Hippodrome for helping me to have family harmony!
Zog and the Flying Doctors is written by the wonderful Julia Donaldson and Freckle Productions bring to life Axel Schefflers equally wonderful illustrations. With music and lyrics from Joe Stilgoe.
Zog (Ben Raymond) is still learning to fly, or rather learning to land. He still crashes with a bump. Princess Pearl (Lois Glenister) and Sir Gadabout (Alex Bloomer) don’t seem to mind as they take to the skies and tend to their patients – a mermaid with sunburn (Sarah Freer), a unicorn with an extra horn (Danny Hendrix) and a Lion with a cold. And their friends Rabbit and Squirrel (Annie Rose Chapman), But on their travels they meet Pearls uncle, a King who believes that Princesses should wear pretty dresses and not be Doctors. However, after he gets ill, Princess Pearl and her friends help him to get better and prove that Princesses can work too
Zog has a lovely message for the children, proving that anyone can do anything and they shouldn’t let anyone tell them otherwise. The children in the audience enjoyed the singing and dancing and general shouting and silliness. Its less than an hour long and designed for the under-8’s (and the random 23 and 29 year old obviously)
55 minutes of childish interactive joy, a perfect introduction to the theatre for your little ones