This show is not your average play. There are no actors acting out the story. It is all narrated by one person and illustrated live by a cartoonist. There was also a musician who occasionally spoke and another helper who played small roles.
The show is by Terrapin Puppet Theatre from Tasmania but it is not a puppet show. It is more like storytelling with pictures.
You and Me and the Space Between is about a red head girl from an island of people who believed they were the only people in the world. But the girl, Eve, didn’t think the same as the rest of the people on the island. She thought there could be other people out there beyond the waves of the vast ocean.
After discovering a leak in the island, Eve made a speech to everyone about how they could all solve the problem. Her idea was to row the island out to sea to find a new place to live. Eventually they found another place full of people who lived on tall, tall white cliffs. The islanders tied their island to it and learned the other people’s language and the first brave islanders stepped over the tiny gap from their land onto the other people’s land.
At first the other people were quite nice but eventually they started to throw rocks at the islanders windows because the islanders were one-by-one coming on to their land and the people of the tall cliffs did not like it.
The play has a message about refugees and migrants and how we should welcome them.
Overall this was an exceedingly good play. It is aimed at 5-to-8 year olds but there was one thunderstorm scene, which might be frightening to under fives. I think the best part of the play was the live action cartoon illustrator.
By Thom Blake, age 9