Review: Much Ado About Puffin for a charming friendship tale

‘I thought it was going to be the story from the book but it wasn’t’

Four-year-old Big Girl walked out of the Studio at Lyric Hammersmith with a big smile today. It turned out she had thought we were going to see the stage adaptation of the Puffin Peter children’s book, but despite being different than what she’d expected Open Attic Company’s Much Ado About Puffin didn’t disappoint.

We had run around looking for more LOL Surprise dolls before arriving at the theatre, and after sitting down and hearing the sound of waves I felt my whole body relaxing and it was a treat to sit down and watch a sweet story about an unlikely friendship being played out on stage.

Much Ado About Puffin tells the story of a lonely man who befriends a puffin. The man first tries to fight the puffin when the bird comes inside his house, but he soon realises the puffin is kind, fun to be around and determined to help him.

This charming story is played out with the help of puppets and a minimalist set with a few waves and icebergs–one with a red house at the top. The red house on the set is practically like a doll house, and when it’s opened the first time there were a lot of ‘awwwws’ in the audience.

It’s a story that’s very far from London and Big Girl’s everyday life, but the play is touching and highlights what’s important in life–friendship and happiness. It’s also funny, with the man reminding me of a comic actor from a silent film.

There were a lot of giggling when he tried to warm up his bottom, and Big Girl loved the surprise factor when the man was rescued from drowning by the puffin and he spitted out water.

The male actor is dressed exactly like the puppet representing him, and this makes transitions from acting to puppetry seamless. When the little puppet of the man is used, the puffin is a microscopic puppet, but there’s also a life-sized puffin puppet.

In fact, we even got to meet the bigger puffin puppet after the show, and it was great to see the friendly Open Attic team letting families have their pictures taken with the puppets and explore the set.

A happy ending to both the story and our day out!

Much Ado About Puffin is on tour and recommended for ages 4 to 11, but there seemed to be many younger children in the audience today too and there was nothing we found scary. Running time is 53 minutes

Tags: Children's theatre, London, Lyric Hammersmith, Open Attic Company, Puffin