I am afraid that this is going to be one of my shorter reviews. That may come as music to your ears but I like to give value for money to the various establishments who allow me in to pass judgement on their productions, whatever they are. The reason for my brevity is that I just didn’t understand a lot of the facets of this show, nor why it needed to be so long. The latter impression was borne out by general seat shuffling, one audience member becoming restless to the point of resorting to texting on their phone, a practice swiftly stamped upon by the very efficient house staff, or, as the lady sitting next to me did, fall asleep!
The story is that of Marinka who lives with her grandmother, Baba, who is a Yaga – someone who guides the recently deceased to the afterlife. She facilitates this by throwing a house party for the day’s dead to celebrate their lives, before sending them through the window, which is really a wall which opens, to be with the stars.
A dead good farewell party
The house, as you would guess, intermittently sprouts chicken legs, and moves to various remote, isolated locations; the desert, the coast, and even a housing estate in Scotland! At the latter site, Marinka meets a local boy and they arrange to meet the following day. The house, however, has other ideas and relocates, thus preventing the two from executing their plan. The really creepy thing is not the house being able to move, but later, when the couple meet again and are warned by the boy’s father, who has just been hit on by the 1,000 year-old Yaga and is about to be whisked away, presumably for a session of necrophilia, not to get up to any funny business when they are left alone, Marinka is 12 years old!
Foreground: Eve De Leon Allen as Marinka and Lisa Howard as Baba
Leaving that aside, Baba is training Marinka to be a Yaga, which she does, but not before the girl has made friends with another 12-year-old, Nina, whose twin sister is in the house for her farewell party, having died of a disease which has also claimed both of her parents.
Once Marinka has qualified, Baba disappears through the window, even though she has been dead for several hundred years. Marinka then runs into another Yaga, who helps her get established. There is a twist at the end so I won’t spoil it, but two and a half hours was a long time to wait for it. So long that I was working out how I could disappear through the window myself, but after the interval I was not really in party mood.
I am probably too logical in my thinking as I regard any story, be it of the fairy tale kind, or science fiction, where normal rules of nature are ignored, a bit of a cop-out in that you can make them alter to suit your purpose rather than have to work out a way to adhere to them and still make the story stand up.
The finger lickin’ good house
There were several songs in the production, even though it is not billed as a musical. Some obviously worked better than others. The thing most of them seemed to have in common was that they battered home the reason for their inclusion far more than was necessary. It was a real shame as a lot of the ideas were very amusing, one instance was near the end when Yaga organised a house party where all the guests were houses, geddit? They also all had chicken legs enabling them to boogie on down, but a joke, unlike a song, does not get any better with repetition, in fact it deteriorates, as did the humour in this number.
Stephanie Levi-John struttin’ her stuff as Yaga
Speaking of humour, a lot of the spoken jokes were pretty funny, especially those delivered by Baba, played by Lisa Howard, and Ben, the Scottish lad, Michael Barker. Yaga, Stephanie Levi-John, was the epitome of a Southern Soul Sister with a brilliant voice, but, like Baba’s opening song, a lot of the words were drowned out by the backing music, ostensibly played by the actors but which seemed to be augmented by a pre-recorded track.
Eve De Leon Allen, who played Marinka, and Elouise Warboys, Nina, were excellent as victims of circumstance, left alone in the world. Dan Willis played Jack, the jackdaw, who was Marinka’s only real friend. Actually, he was the puppeteer responsible for operating Jack, but he chipped in with a few well placed caws.
I must congratulate the creatives, whose set design, puppetry, special effects and animations were superb.
The House With Chicken Legs runs, or should that be struts, until Saturday, 16th September, 2023. For more details, to book and to see a trailer, please go to https://leedsplayhouse.org.uk/event/the-house-with-chicken-legs/
All images supplied by Leeds Playhouse.
Tyke It To The Limit 