The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Pinocchio at St Paul’s Church

Pinocchio at St Paul’s Church | Theatre review
6 August 2015
Nico Cull
Avatar
Nico Cull
6 August 2015

In 1940, producer Walt Disney turned Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio into a global sensation. Since then, it’s become one of the most popular stories on the planet, igniting the imagination and empathy of children from mountain valleys to city skyscrapers. Despite Rousseau’s hypothesis that fables are beguiling and “buy delight at the expense of clarity”, they remain a principle pedagogical tool in moral development, and continue to shape the world today.

In this production, Pinocchio is a small puppet who comes to life and runs away from his maker to explore the world. He wants to have adventures and live like a real child, but nothing is quite what it seems when he meets a slinky cat, an avaricious fox, a strict teacher, a devious boy and a covetous madam. And just when he begins to think he’s escaped, it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire, as he’s swallowed whole by a leviathan.

Jonathan Mulquin has a calm charisma as Geppetto, a seductive voice as Mr Fox and exactly the right amount of visceral intensity for a ringmaster. Together with Mrs Cat (Emma Darlow) he creates an atmosphere worthy of David Lean’s Oliver Twist as they tie the verbose Pinocchio up. It’s a promenade show, staged outside; the children move between sets and often the characters interact with the audience, sitting amongst them in the “classroom” and tickling people at the “funfair”. There are puppets too – in fact, they are used to tell a great deal of the story.

But it’s as much a pilgrimage as anything else, a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment and a journey to become a real boy or a moral human being. It’s also about ideas, deconstructing supposition, questioning what the experts say, learning and thinking for oneself in an increasingly specious society. Dark and complex, it’s based more on the book than the film, and it’s much more interesting. It’s funny in places, too, and hyperbole aside, kids will benefit not just from the singing, which they can join in with, but from the philosophy. Daniel Winder has done a fine job turning Collodi’s fascinating story into an intriguing piece of social commentary, as he guides the audience through the quagmire of secularism.

★★★★★

Nico Cull
Photos: Hannah Barton

Pinocchio is on at St Paul’s Church from 29th July until 29th August, for further information or to book visit here.

Watch the trailer for Pinocchio here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related ItemsfeaturedPinocchioreview

More in Theatre

Chiswick Playhouse Recharged: An interview with producer Wayne Glover-Stuart

Selina Begum
Read More

Anthropocene: The Human Era at Oxford Playhouse Online

★★★★★
Francis Nash
Read More

The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz

Ezelle Alblas
Read More

The Secret Connection – Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Cruise – Online

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

A Splinter of Ice at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre Online

★★★★★
Francis Nash
Read More

Distance Remaining – Online

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Doppler: Grid Iron theatre company document the story so far

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Disenchanted Online

★★★★★
Regan Harle
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Nico Cull

Pinocchio

★★★★★

Dates

29th July - 29th August 2015

Price

£12-£18

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Kaleo – Surface Sounds
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Weezer with the LA Philharmonic and YOLA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz
    Theatre
  • Ride or Die
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • House of Cardin
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Chiswick Playhouse Recharged: An interview with producer Wayne Glover-Stuart
    Theatre
  • Anthropocene: The Human Era at Oxford Playhouse Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Race to Save the World
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Motherhood Project: An interview with creator and curator Katherine Kotz
    Theatre
  • 50 Next unveils the new generation of food industry pioneers
    Food & Drinks
  • Arlo the Alligator Boy
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Campfire in Kings Cross: Two Tribes deliver everything you’ve been missing with a night of beer, BBQ and live music
    Food & Drinks
  • Live from the Barbican: Moses Boyd
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

I Believe in Unicorns at the Vaudeville | Theatre review
Bears in Space at the Soho | Theatre review