The Adult Catchers
The young reviewer and I went to see The Adult Catchers show at the Bosco Spiegel tent this May towards the end of the festival. This was a new show for this year’s festival and follows on from the environmentally focused kids show ‘LET’S BUILD A PLANET!’ from the same group at last year’s Brighton Festival Fringe.
This was a 60 minute show aimed at ages four upwards which had a very clear message. That adults are far too interested in money and the central focus of the show being that the adult catchers’ role is to come and fetch greedy adults and turn them back into children so that they remember the important things in life. “That’s good isn’t it” said our child reviewer.
This new children’s show from Sam Quinn’s All-Stars explores the lives of Erik Stand and Sidney Still, a quirky pair of freedom fighters who are trying to trap all the grown-ups in the world and turn them back into kids again. But they can’t do it alone!
Taking it in turns to show lots of gold and adults choking on money alongside some crazy lawnmowers, this was a colourful experience with some points which are definitely designed to make kids giggle. The show involves two main characters who have to work hard to ensnare avaricious grown ups.
Turning to scatalogical matters, a plot is devised to apprehend obsessed adults whilst on the toilet. “I like to catch adults with their trousers down on the loo…..I call it the pooper snare”. Once the adult is caught on the loo then the adult catchers need to turn the greedy adults into children, a juncture which gave ample opportunities for children to participate in the show.
The second part of the show involves Nigel the bank manager who loves his money being tricked into being caught by adult catchers with an audience member’s phone. Duly converted by the adult catchers, Nigel thus becomes addicted to catching adults instead, a sort of strange emotional displacement. He needs a cure!
Getting the kids involved, we find that the bank manager actually has a soft spot for ice cream and not going to work and a cure is found involving tickles and chewing gum. All is well.
A worthy show about the lure of money with a final Extinction Rebellion message.
