Music review: Icepole

Published on Tuesday 1 February 2011 18:26

ICEPOLE TRAMWAY, GLASGOW ****

JUST outside the door, as we leave the magic world of Starcatchers' latest show for tiny tots, there's a table covered in little paper boats.

"A sort of gig", says the message on each boat, "a sort of journey, a sort of response, a sort of daydream"; and that's a near-perfect description of this gorgeous little 30-minute show, created by visual artist Katy Wilson with musician/composers Kim Moore and Dougal Marwick, artist Ewan Sinclair, and performer/director Xana Marwick.

The show begins in the Tramway foyer, where Xana Marwick – surrounded by tots on cushions – yawns and talks to herself, and plays with her pet, a hairy mouse called Dougal, and a little toy boat. After a minute, though, Dougal disappears up a metal tube that seems to lead to the next room; and in no time, we're all tiptoeing through the door into a world where Dougal, the boat, and the tunnel are all much bigger, and we are in a magic promenade landscape full of craggy, magically-lit mountains, rainbows, rivers, and a friendly floating cloud.

Kim Moore appears like a Starcatchers version of Bjrk, singing and playing a little gig, with Dougal as accompanist, while we explore the space. And although there's plenty to quibble about in Icepole – a slight lack of visual clarity in linking one world to the other, an absence of verbal clarity and energy – there's also plenty to revel in, and an atmosphere of pure, friendly magic that carries the audience through the rest of the day, on a small cloud of happiness.