The Just So Stories

Big in scope and archaic in tone though they are, Kipling’s Just So Stories remain essential bedtime reading. In bringing them to the stage, Red Table Theatre uses everyday household objects as props and costume accessories – a touch which takes them out of the realm of pure imagination into the kind of world that children create for themselves by using.

So the Elephant Child’s stump of a trunk is a slinky which, when caught by the crocodile – an extended hat – expands just as it should. Staging is created with boxes and swathes of cloth, while the four actresses speak Kipling’s words with a nicely mesmerising quality.
The creation riff of The Crab that Played with the Sea is a good opener. It provides an instant reference point for the over-fours (a cut-off age worth observing) in the Man’s Child, who is the observant and clever one in the story. Parents dutifully perched behind the ‘snuggle pit’ will be gratified that it clearly stamps out the idea that this is fantasy, not reality.
How the Camel got his Hump, How the Whale got his Throat and the Elephant’s Child complete the quartet of stories. Performing original songs between each one keeps the audience focused in a production that is happy not to compromise in terms of language.