“Every time you think, “There’s no way she’s got more to bring” Ellis steps it up a gear.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

The songs of Nick Cope saved my life. OK, they didn’t save my life, but they did really help me. By the time Lockdown finally ended our relationship with Daughter 1.0’s school had finally broken down. Parked on a hill is not an instantly easy concept for us Cambridgeshire folk to grasp, but the handbrake was failing, the SLT was flailing, and the hopes for a better tomorrow were fading. We took the decision to follow other village families in search of a better fit at the new primary in the new town over the parish boundary. There was the usual bureaucratic kerfuffle but it all came right in the end. She would make the switch after the half-term holidays. Nothing left to do but walk her down to the cafe, buy her an ice cream, and tell her the news. There were tears. Mostly mine. A day or so before a Bedford pal had told me about a Nick Cope song that might make things just a little bit easier. SPOILER ALERT! It really did. Thank you Nick. It’s fair to say we had high expectations going into ‘Rosie and Hugh’s Great Big Adventure’. SPOILER ALERT! We were none of us disappointed.

We enter to find it’s the morning of the last day of the holidays and Rosie wants to make it massive. Rosie needs a massive distraction from the thing she doesn’t want to think about. Rosie talks through the adventuresome options with her BHF (Best Hedgehog Forever), Hugh. There’s loads of possibilities but it is the end of the summer and they’ve done most of them already. Then a lightning bulb sparks, what if they could make it so that it was the last day of the holidays… forever!

That would take a powerful magic. You’d need a witch for something like that. Do Rosie and Hugh know of any witches? What would the witch need to hold back time forever? The parameters for a pacy, smart, and captivating adventure are programmed into the navicom before an interstellar cast sends this exquisite production into hyperdrive.

In her EdFringe notebook, the one with a rusty robot on the cover, Daughter 1.0 (9yrs) wrote: “I went to Rosie and Hugh’s great big Adventiar Adventiaur. Adventieur Adventure. I really liked the singing the witch, and the dragon. The dragon rode a teeny tiny bike and was called Keith. (Keith did tap dancing) The funniest bit was the bit where Hugh had to cross the A32 but was very scared about crossing (don’t worry he was fine.) I also liked the bits where they sang Nick Cope’s songs.”

As Rosie, Alice Vilanculo is.. is… pls insert your own words here if you can find any that suitably adjectivate the feelings and the excitement generated across this packed house by her perfectly poised performance. I am genuinely lost for words. In a cast of heavyweights giving the most delicate of performances, Vilanculo shines like the star she is. Scott Brooks’ professional information states that his hair colour is dark brown, that his voice character is “assured” and that his voice quality is “deep” – no crap Cumberbatch. As the timorous and occasionally tetchy Hugh, Brooks is pitch-perfect. He really does have a properly lovely voice which he deploys alongside the full broadside weight of his growing professional reputation like Nelson pointing canon before his battle with the Nile – take that! you troublesome tributaries. Vilanculo and Brooks do justice to the quality of this Nick Cope / Victoria Saxton collaboration like Batman and Spiderman wearing powdered wigs and drinking auld Baileys in a high court.

Offue Okegbe and Andy Owens are the pommel of the piece, bringing balance and brilliance. Daughter 3.0 (2yrs) is particularly taken with Owens’ dragon wings while I am an unashamed Okegbe fanboy. If you hate talented people being really good at what they do, then these guys are going to bring you out in hives.

If Mary Poppins’ overnight bag – the one in which she keeps her favourite standing lamps – was an actor it would be Katy Ellis. Every time you think, “There’s no way she’s got more to bring” Ellis steps it up a gear. As Rosie’s down to Earth mum and as the not-as-scary-as-we-first-thought witch, Ellis is the corresponding grip, tang, shoulder, and écusson that allows this production to chop, dice, slice, and mince 60 minutes of stage traffic into an hour’s worth of unforgettable children’s theatre. Ellis is one to watch and is as watchable as rainbow waves splashing against a starlight shore. To say Ellis is talented would be like saying UK elections are always held on a Thursday. It goes without saying.

Any one of these actors would command a stage and a big box office return. Together they bend time and space. This is a production with more value than the New York Stock Exchange in which you’ll see more heart than cardiologist specialising in Blue Whales.

Put your brave face on. Get your coats on and go see this!

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