Edinburgh International Children’s Festival
We Come From Far,Far Away, Lauriston Hall/
Expedition Peter Pan, Traverse Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
four stars
Real people, and real stories, have always interested and inspired NIE (Norway/England). We Come From Far, Far Away (for ages 10 - 15 years) sees the company sourcing material from teenage asylum seekers then - with twists of wily humour, some atmospheric live music and the honest details of brutal experiences - conjuring up the risk-laden, cross-continents, journey of two lads from Aleppo who seek refuge in Oslo. Newsreel footage regularly delivers graphic images of similarly displaced children but inside NIE’s compact yurt, the subtly unhistrionic feel of this piece brings us within touching distance of terrors and sorrows that are unfolding a world away. Two boys, Abdullah and Omar, leave Aleppo together: only one, Abdullah, arrives in Oslo. Omar, however, is always on-stage. Despite drowning, he lives on In Abdullah’s heart and mind... Unconditional friendship, like courage and hope, accompanies every step of this powerfully affecting journey - one still being made by thousands today.
Another kind of journey befalls the five, business-suited adults in Expedition Peter Pan (by Het Laagland, Netherlands). As an unseen power visits (often embarrassing) practical jokes on them, all five shed inhibitions, abandon ‘grown-up’ responsibilities - and succumb, instead to the forgotten joys of child’s play. A young audience (7- 12 years) simply cracked up at seeing adults going wild’n’wacky - being pilots and pirates, super-heroes and TV characters - but as the office furniture becomes the fantasy landscape of Neverland, there’s a wise side to the hilarious mayhem. A kind of warning to older onlookers, really: don’t outgrow your inner child. Hold onto the energies of your dreams and - like these exuberant, versatile parformers - keep believing, like the pop song says, you can fly. This whole festival has been flying high, fielding theatre pieces full of fun, imagination and insights for all ages - here’s to EICF 2019
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here