Polka Theatre

Musical adaptation of Ximo Abadia’s quirky kids’ picturebook about a donkey named Toto with grand ideas of being an astronaut. Adapted by Harry Blake and directed by Jennifer Tang, it‘s aimed at kids aged three-to-eight.

JM Barrie’s magical romp Peter Pan isn’t technically a Christmas story at all, but it naturally gravitates towards the season and is often (slightly awkwardly) squeezed into a panto shape. That’s not what the Polka’s big Christmas show is though: rather it’s a beatbox/rap overhaul from the team – headed by adaptor/director Conrad Murray – who did similar Polka treatments for Romeo & Juliet and the story of the Pied Piper. For ageas five to 12.

This review is from 2014. A new version of Little Bulb’s Antarctica will be staged at the Polka Theatre for Christmas 2026. Sweetly experimental theatre company Little Bulb’s shows are infused with the sort of off-beat imagination that most adults only encounter when they meet a two-year-old. Don’t get me wrong: that’s a compliment. It’s their unique way of looking at the world, and at theatre, that helps to make their work so delightful, funny and wondrously silly. It makes a lot of sense, then, that Little Bulb have now made a show for ages two to six. ‘Antarctica’ is not a lot more than three company members (Alex Scott, Dominic Conway and Clare Beresford) dressing up in hilarious DIY costumes, pulling funny faces, pretending to be animals and dancing around the place. But what a lot of fun to watch that is. We follow brave explorer Sir Peregrine Falcon as he embarks on a trip to the South Pole. He is trying to take photographs of penguins, seagulls, seals and the lesser spotted Owlarbear, which has the head of an owl and the body of a bear. While Scott plays Falcon and gently cajoles the young audience into calling out, being map readers and flag bearers, Beresford and Conway lark about as the animals. There’s a hilarious dance of the snowflakes, where the two wear headdresses and white long johns, plus some fat angry seals and the monstrous Owlabear. The latter is an absolute beauty: it emerges backlit from behind a screen, as the rest of the lights go dim. It’s...