Polly

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Polly starts with promise and excitement as we are invited in to what feels like someone’s living room—decorated with hats, scarves and lampshades—and make ourselves comfortable on the floor cushions. We are asked to pick a piece of paper with a key word on it and draw a picture to depict it. These pictures, we are promised, would be used later on in the story.

However what follows is not only disappointing, it borders on brazen considering the £9.50 adult ticket price. With no use of props and minimal accompanying music, the storyteller simply tells us about Polly – a little girl who is hidden from sight in a world without creativity. At points throughout the story, she mentions the key words from earlier and we hold up our pictures. Yes, she did look at them and loosely work elements of them into her narrative, but to bill this as a story ‘built by the audience’ is pushing it.

The story finishes just as we meet the angel we are told about in the show's synopsis. It has no real conclusion and before we know it the show is over. But, as a parent, what I really object to is my child being told that they can find out what happens next to Polly by buying a ticket for the following week's show. In my opinion, that’s not on.