Friday, 29th September 2023 at the Wesley Centre, Harrogate (for Harrogate Theatre)
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Smoking Apples Theatre’s Kinder is is beautiful show. Its beauty lies in the visual richness of the puppetry and inventive use of set throughout, but also in the quiet strength of Babi, whose story we see in a cross-section of childhood and twilight years.
Aimed at teenagers but every bit as engaging for grown ups and those in pre-teen years, this show explores The Czech Kindertransport initiative (the brainchild of Nicholas Winton) which saw Czech-Jewish children evacuated to seaside towns in England during the Second World War. Separated from a secure family unit to travel to safety alone, little Barbora’s story is one which demands we take her and all the Kindertransport children to heart, but also to recognise the parallels between this frightened young girl and those who are currently leaving danger behind in search of safety.
Matt Lloyd’s immersive set is a feat of enchanting escapism. We don’t just enter an auditorium or existing studio space, we enter a colourful little shed structure jam-packed with tiny visual details to help the story along. Once we’re settled in and cosy, all four walls (and ceiling and hatches) are used to tell this story, and it’s an engaging fifty minutes as contraptions and projections map Babi’s journey and various characters pop in and out.
The show is a collaborative effort of devising from George Bellamy and performers Hattie Thomas and David Burchhardt, directed by Molly Freeman. Thomas and Burchhardt are joined in performing by Tea Poldervaart, and the three of them skilfully and speedily give life and character to a wide range of wonderful puppet creations – including an adorable pup and various larger than life Brits. Puppet designs from Thomas and Matt Lloyd are simply beautiful. Soft lines, warm features and glittering eyes make this cross-generational pairing very endearing – and when young Barbora appears in her little yellow coat and toting her little suitcase, with the same head shaking mannerisms, our affection easily transfers to her.
Kinder doesn’t hammer home the horrors of the war or the persecution of Jews, but it also takes care to ensure that these things are given an ominous presence, mostly through table-top shadow puppetry (illustrations: Hattie Thomas). And when it comes to tugging at heartstrings, the production makes excellent use of audio snippets from interviews with the real children of the Kindertransport, which serve to highlight the range of experiences had by those suddenly forced to abandon one life for another.
Molly Freeman and George Bellamy’s script is clever and nuanced, too. There’s the pretty neat narrative of younger/ older Babi to follow, but there are also some lovely, subtle ways in which the experiences of the Kindertransport children are made immediate and tangible. Early on, English-only speakers must rely on signals and guess work, positioning the audience to experience a little of what the children of the Kindertransport must have felt when arriving in a new country speaking in a different tongue. And when young Babi navigates a little of Margate and its extremely British inhabitants, the script is a playfully befuddled mix of sounds and almost-words, gently developing an understanding of the strangeness these young children experienced.
Clever and inventive, visually rich and beautifully emotive, Kinder is a must-see. “All change!” has never been so moving.
Kinder is touring until November 11th 2023 – more information about venues, dates and tickets can be found here.
Always Time For Theatre 