One of the main problems I have with the festival programme is the section titled ‘Children’. Like any self-respecting child above the age of about seven wants to be labelled as a child! If they called it family and added shows that were not just kiddie patronising stuff, they might get a lot more people to the shows. Rachel Trachtenburg’s Morning Show was the first childrens show I have seen in Edinburgh.
Rachel Trachtenberg and her parents live a life of relaxed hippie-dom in New York. This year, rather than the usual slide show and songs, they have brought their entire New York apartment and friends over. The morning show has the family (mostly with Rachel in charge) singing songs accompanied by sticky felt pictures, making cute little craft headgear, making and serving some snacks for the audience and guests, plus having their friends over to entertain the audience. The cast all have their own puppet versions which we get to see coming past the ‘window’ to the apartment, so they can be enticed in to meet the gang.
The show is not a slick and fast moving beast, but the beauty of the event is being allowed to see a world where getting everything slick and marketable is not the major requirement (although, speaking of marketing, they have T-shirts, Rachel dolls, badges and CDs for sale).
This is an entertaining show and has a nice enviromental message and a sing-a-long as well as the rest of the action. The show did not run too long though this may have been due to the lack of kids in the audience (one! plus about 6 adults). I would like this show to be a success but I don’t know where all the kids are to encourage them to give it a go. At least this show is hosted by an actual kid (well, she’s 13 I think so maybe teen instead, but still able to relate to the yoof).
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