Well, every parent knows what a complete pain in the a*se it is to get their offspring to tidy up their room. And every beloved little darling knows that there are consequences for non-compliance to certain house rules. But it is darn tedious to clean. I hate it myself.
Enter into Chores – the world of two bearded toddler brothers (the hairiness of which I still found slightly perturbing) with their baby mannerisms, miming and comic clowning skills. They need to tidy their bedroom so they can ride their bikes again. What ensues from the get-go is a lot of jiggery pokery with loo roll, water sprays, general madness and misdemeanour. It starts as a slight mess and turns into unravelling mayhem. Will these two pranksters get away with it? The punishing threats from the booming offstage voice of mother (who surely then must be a giant!?) creates the necessary tension for folk to watch wide-eyed through their fingers. Young gasps of disbelief aplenty.
Hoopla Clique (from Cluster Arts) consists of Australian creative directors Derek Llewellin and Julian Roberts who have choreographed a form of contained and controlled chaos for little people, who absolutely lap this type of slapstick up.
There is no talking, and no real message (maybe – have fun when you tidy your room?) There is however, a lot of frivolity and excitement as the anticipation of constant calamity is never ending. The ‘heights’ of avoidance of cleaning duties is slightly breathtaking. The double juggling was old school, but outstanding with its twists. The unicycling too. More clowning stunts please boys!
This is definitely one for the younger end of ‘children’s entertainment’ spectrum – and not up to 14 years as advertised. The jokes were somewhat repetitive and irritating in their complete silliness to a mature brain. My tween couldn’t believe the absolute ‘hyper’ nature of the screeching crowd (in a very condescending way I might add!) But it’s just frivolous fun after all.