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Search forPupils create the wonderful world of oogly-googlies
Wednesday, December 03, 2008, 23:00
The seven to 11-year-olds of Key Stage 2, under the watchful eye and guidance of former Hayward's head, Mike Palmer, threw their hearts and souls into performances of The Big Noise at Fortissimo.
Described in the programme notes as "suspiciously like a pantomime", the show's words and scenes were created by the children themselves, around a storyline based on an original idea by Bernard Goss and Paul Star, who wrote the play of the same name.
The show, which features several big musical numbers, is set in a children's toy cupboard, and tells a sad tale.
The children of the household have become addicts of modern computer games, and the Game Boys, Nintendos and other electronic toys have taken over from the toy farmyard, the train set, the dolls' house and other more traditional games.
But the children do not realise the problems they are causing in the toy cupboard.
The mean and nasty 'space invader' type beings, which rejoice in the name of Oogly-googlies, and who inhabit the games consoles, are playing havoc with the other occupants.
Some traditional toy soldiers have been turned to stone by the Oogly-googlies, but the nasty creatures have a weak spot. They are terrified by the sound of mooing and when Ermintrude the cow turns up — in a costume carefully constructed by Sue Dishman — with the farmer and his wife, the Oogly-googlies scream and run off.
Ermintrude gets very excited at the sight of the stone soldiers, and jumps up and down.
She whispers to the farmer and his wife that the secret of bringing them back to life is for the audience to shout 'Fortissimo!' very loudly.
There is a lovely bit of pantomime business where the audience has to be encouraged to shout the word more loudly several times before the soldiers come back to life.
Things end so happily that even the Oogly-googlies are encouraged to come out of the bottom of the toy cupboard where they are hiding and join the party.
Mike said: "It has been lovely to see the children doing some theatre and singing their hearts out.
"I'm very passionate about that, because it gives them a spring in their step coming to school."
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