one4review | On 07, Aug 2023

Under the shiny lights Ada bounds in with fabulous flair and shiny hair, our Drag Queen Story Hour has begun and promises laughter and fun with high energy and Ada trying to hold the attention of the children through. However in reality it’s a touch more chaotic than expected.

 

Ada introduces themselves with enthusiasm and quirky energy and encourages the children and adults alike to join in, with a panto style call and response which quickly turns to confusion and mayhem as the children not quite sure when they should or shouldn’t engage and some children not really caring what or when they shout out and this showcases the crux of this issue with this format. If you have 0-3 year olds you’ve probably been to plenty of library story times where you experience a few stories and some songs. This isn’t that.

 

The spectacle of a drag Queen storytelling is a wonderful idea, the execution falters under the weight of trying to keep such a wide age range of children engaged.

 

I was most confused by the idea of trying to stretch a single story (at the back you couldn’t see the images on the small pages) over an entire hour. While older children in the audience could find themselves being rather bored, babies and toddlers will definitely struggle to hold their attention for that long. This all results into constant chatter that often drowned out narration.

 

Audience interaction was strongly encouraged, however this too fell into disarray with some of the smaller children not grasping when they should or shouldn’t be joining in. They didn’t seem sure whether to boo or cheer and this resulted in a disjointed atmosphere which wasn’t helped by an often adlibbed narrative when not reading directly from the one story.

 

Overall the show felt heavily like a work in progress and something that probably sat well in a library or school setting at present. It may fair better to change the venue and split the show into two age ranges, babies and older ones.

 

This is a fabulous idea but struggled to maintain focus and solid structure. With a few more stories added, larger imagery or puppets or bubbles or songs or something else to grab attention and keep the flow going this could be a real gem, it’s just not there yet.

2**

Reviewed by Matthew

Assembly Roxy Downstairs

11.00 (1hr)

Until 27 Aut