Set in the drab space of a supermarket, Happy Mart, Check Out! tells the funny tale of a whingeing baby’s adventures in the grocery aisles. Baby’s father just wants to tick off the items on his shopping list but Baby has other ideas; she has fallen victim to the supermarket’s clever selling techniques and wants an elusive chocolate bunny. She’ll stop at nothing to get it – and she takes the audience with her. But when Baby is given free reign of the supermarket she soon learns that you should be careful what you wish for.
You’d expect the puppets to be the stars of a Polyglot production and while Baby, her new pal Speedy and an assortment of grocery item puppets are really effective – the real stand-outs are the performers. Their slapstick routines using Sappy Soap boxes had the children howling with delight. In fact the first ten minutes were hardly audible; the kids were seriously loud and that sort of hilarity rubs off on the parents – it was impossible not to laugh.
However the acoustics were a problem. A jam-packed theatre, full of laughing kids is a noisy affair; throw in a couple of crying babies, a few squeaky toys and lots of chatter and it becomes a problem. The performance included supermarket voice-overs promoting different products or directing the staff but unfortunately we couldn’t hear any of them.
Polyglot has created a perfect set for this piece; the black and white grocery images on large panels conjure the sense of sameness experienced in a generic supermarket. The performers/puppeteers move the panels throughout the performance to create the effects of running through and past aisles.
This show is one with a message about consumerism and the effects of advertising to children. It also touches on the power struggle between parents and their children, particularly in the volatile supermarket world. Fortunately this message is not rammed down our throats and there’s plenty of action and movement to keep the show flowing.
Polyglot recommends the show for 5-12 year-olds but that’s a bit of a stretch. I took five underage critics with me and judging from their comments I think this show is more suited to the under sixes.
Scarlett (8): It was good but I didn’t think it was that funny.
Iris (5): They pretended that the food stuff were people, that was so funny!
Jasper (5): It was so funny when at the start the Daddy tried to take the baby home but he couldn’t get it. It was great.
Violet (8): I liked the set. It wasn’t as funny as other shows I’ve seen.
Indigo (11): It was clever how they used the people and the puppets but I didn’t laugh much.
For touring details check out The Polygot Theatre Company