A Tiger’s Tale Review – Warwick Arts Centre
This month we’ve been working alongside Warwick Arts Centre visiting lots of their wonderful theatre and interactive shows. We sent three different families to review the latest offerings and here’s what our Mum, Chloe and her family thought of M6 Theatre’s A Tiger’s Tale.
Based on the extraordinary story of Fenella, the Holmfirth Tiger, A TIGER’S TALE is a high spirited balancing act of circus, puppetry, live music and song.
From a circus train in South Africa, to a steamboat on the Atlantic Ocean and onward to West Yorkshire, a ramshackle travelling troupe tell us the unbelievable true story of a family of acrobats and their adopted tiger cub.
We had a brilliant time seeing A Tiger’s Tale this afternoon! There was a great, and free, arts and crafts area upstairs in the Mead Gallery, so we went up there before the show. The kids were free to paint, colour, stick etc to their heart’s content! There was also a lovely, cosy book area with really unusual books the kids hadn’t seen before, which they loved.
On the way to the performance we stopped at the Café Bar for some sweets, a good sized box for £5.50.
The kids were very excited and flapping their tickets around as we went up to The Goose Nest. We parked up our pushchair outside the venue and were shown through into the main room.
It was nice and cosy, dimly lit with a bright cart with red velvet curtains in the middle of the stage. The music started and we were introduced to three story tellers, the children were captivated throughout, even the littlest who is only 17 months old! They told a lovely story of Titch, Ma and Pa, an ordinary family who went to live a life of acrobatics at a circus in Africa. There was lots of fun along the way, as they moved the stage around and changed clothes.
The real fun came when Titch saved a tiny tiger cub from living a life of slavery in the circus. She named her Ella. The children loved seeing the tiger puppet grow up; it was so clever how they did it. Eventually we see a full grown tiger made of bits and pieces they picked up from around them, a puppet on wheels. The way he was controlled was fantastic!
In the end, Ma got homesick so they decided to go home to Yorkshire, England. They couldn’t leave Ella behind so took her back with them by boat. The stage was changed again to look like they were sailing, and the stars engaged the audience by waving at us all. They got home and the tiger lived with them for 10 years until she reached her end. This was really sad, but then we learn that this is a true story! Which makes everyone really happy again!
They packed up their things and showed a beautiful photo of Titch and her tiger, Fenella, which almost had me in tears!! The three performers were lovely and met everyone outside and gave all the children stickers!
A steward also brought our pushchair over for us which was a nice touch (he had to push through a huge crowd of people!)
Our eldest hasn’t stopped talking about the story, the tiger and the fact it was a true story! We loved every moment and the children were completely captivated by the 50 minute performance!
We would definitely recommend a trip out to Warwick Arts Centre, there is lots to do and everyone is really friendly and nice. We easily killed a few hours and on a nice day there are statues to find dotted around the campus; we were given a map, which the kids loved but it was a bit cold for it today!
All in all, a great day. Thanks so much! Chloe & family.
If you’d like to find out where A Tiger’s Tale is headed next on their tour, click here
