If you’ve seen David O’Doherty perform before you will know that’s it’s not a stretch to imagine him as an excitable child. In fact, in a past review I compared him to exactly that. Combine this with Maeve Higgins’ inately sweet demeanour and you have a fantastic duo to present this tale of betime shenanigans.
Walking into the Bosco Theatre we see the stage set with two beds, Maeve sleeping quietly in one and David increasingly tossing and turning in the other. His antics became so animated in time that the waiting crowd became increasingly captivated by him even as the theatre was still filling.
The premise of the show is fairly obvious from the title. David can’t sleep. So he wakes Maeve up and the fun ensues as the pair try to work out a way to make David sleep. These include playing sport, suggestions from the audience about how to sleep, trying to fly back to Ireland, pillow ventriloquism and telling stories. There were others but to be honest I became so captivated by the show that I stopped taking notes a short way in.
This show is targeted at the five to eight year olds and the best way to judge a show like this is to keep an eye on the kids in the audience. The audience interaction occured instantanously, with the most subtle of prompts, and the excitment of the little folk from then on only increased, with tiny hands shooting up all over the room for every question, and the constant gurgle and chatter of commentary and suggestion. Mixed in with this are the hanful of asides that David improvises that provide some great amusement for the adults in the audience.
Of the two, David get’s the lion’s share of the action and the laughs. His hyperactive childlike performance is heavily rooted in slapstick and it occured to me that by the end of the festival he will be sporting black and blue reminders of his many prat falls on the wooden floorboards of the Bosco.
The only down side of this show is the venue. The Bosco Theatre is located in the City Square, and the noise from the Trams interferes with the show, especially at the quieter moments.
This is a lovely show, keenly innocent and deeply funny. David and Maeve work beautifully together and with minimum props to create all kinds of scenarios in a way that any two young children would. This is not only a great show for kids but it caters for the folks as well. I loved it.
For more info and booking details go to I Can’t Sleep Featuring David O’Doherty & Maeve Higgins