Theatre review: Monkey Bars, Traverse Theatre (Venue 15), Edinburgh

By JOYCE MCMILLAN
Published on 23/08/2012 10:36

ON A Fringe full of young adults compulsively celebrating their own “childish” behaviour – refusing responsibility, clinging to their cuddly toys and drinking until they vomit over their friends – Chris Goode’s exquisite new show Monkey Bars comes as a sobering and quietly passionate reality check.

Monkey Bars

Traverse Theatre 
(Venue 15)

Star rating: * * * *

Based on his own conversations with young children at a school in Kingston-upon-Thames, Monkey Bars uses the simple but devastatingly original technique of having adults play children as if they were serious people, to lead us ever deeper into the real lives of children in Britain today, full of happiness and interest in most cases, but also of a touching, gentle awareness of the pain, tension and anxiety of the adults in their lives, which also makes them anxious for themselves.

Co-produced by Goode’s own company with the Unicorn Theatre, this 80-minute show uses the simplest of theatrical means to tell its story. Naomi Dawson’s design consists of a set of beautiful, glowing, luminous white bricks big enough to sit on – part nursery furniture, part smart adult design; and around them, the actors sit and chat, alone or in pairs, or in larger groups, but always aware of the one actor who – at any one time – is playing the listening adult, the man with the headphones and recording machine.

The sense of discipline with which the six-strong company avoid any hint of clichéd child-acting is formidable. And the intensity of the process of listening that has shaped this show is both humbling and deeply moving, as Goode quietly dismantles our comforting myths about what “goes over children’s heads”, and reminds us that our stereotyped images of childhood tell us far more about ourselves than about the real children who live among us, feeling our pain, and wondering – for their own sake and ours – whether we can cope.

• Until 26 August. Today 10:30am.