I have to admit – out of all of the many, many children’s TV shows out there, ‘Hey Duggee’ is by far my favourite.
With the catchy songs, fast paced action and the rather appealing baritone sound of Alexander Armstrong’s narration, I can actually watch 30 minutes of this on TV without wanting to gouge my eyes out as others might. And what’s more, both my children of age 5 and 3 will watch this happily together, which is a rarity in itself.
This touring show of Hey Duggee features a cast of 7 performers, one for each squirrel, one who plays both ‘Hey Duggee’ and the narrator (trust me it works) and one cast member for every single other part, from Hennie to Chew Chew. The main roles are all large puppets, controlled by the performers, which are true in likeness and fairly true in voice. Throughout the hour-long show, the Squirrels prepare to put on a theatre show, gaining their costume, singing and choreography badges along the way (and for some reason that I’ve not fathomed their egg and space badges too).
I’ve seen a whole host of kids’ shows now and this is definitely up there amongst the better ones. It’s only an hour and thankfully, unlike Peppa Pig last year, there’s no interval. The show is clever in the use of its set and the fantastic multimedia means that the hypnotic, kaleidoscopic transitions can still be shown on the back wall, which is basically like a giant TV. It helps to keep the unique visual style of Hey Duggee throughout.
Also with keeping in style, Benedict Hastings, who performs both the narrator and Duggee, is absolutely superb. His voice is just like narrator’s from the programme, with his suave and exaggerated facial expressions perfectly capturing the comedy and charm that Alexander Armstrong has. To top it off, his smooth transition into the voice of Duggee is highly impressive and entertaining for the adults. His puppetry skills are also well polished, dancing as Duggee in several of the scenes. He’s certainly got the whole package and his charisma on stage will weirdly, like Armstrong, keep the many mums in the audience happy…or maybe it’s just me.
Lunga Anele-Skosana also gives a solid performance, impressively transitioning quickly from one role to another, sometimes with very quick costume changes. Her accents are particularly strong – from the Deep South to broad cockney, they really help to truthfully portray the characters from the TV show, making it more recognisable and so engaging for the young children.
There’s some good ensemble work here for the entirety of the show and the space scene is a particularly engaging moment where the whole theatre is turned into a planetarium. At times the show lost a little pace and the squirrels were too stationary in their set places for too long. It could have benefitted from less dialogue occasionally and some more background music and sounds to keep the atmosphere energetic and engage their target toddler audience. I think the atmosphere wasn’t helped but the fact that the was a small audience filling a huge theatre. My son would have loved this show and it was totally targeted towards him at the age of 5. Yet most 5 year olds are at school on a Weds at 1pm during term time, and it’s quite a lot of money to ask a parent to pay to take a pre-schooler to the theatre. I think if you went at the weekend, the atmosphere and energy would be amazing, as the show has everything going for it.
The show’s main strength was the fact that they allowed the young audience members to gain the badges as the show went on, having handed us stickers to put on them as we entered the theatre. Just don’t let them put them all on before the show actually starts or there may be tears later when the narrator asks them to put them on as the house lights are brought up. It was a brilliant way though to keep young audiences engaged consistently. They could have definitely been a bit more proactive on stage at getting the audience to join in with the tasks that the squirrels needed to complete in order to gain the badges, such as the dancing, but again I think a big part of this was down to the size of the theatre and the well spread out audience.
Overall, this is definitely worth the trip out to the theatre and is a really good first visit for little ones as it’s certainly a securely decent production that is a solid all-rounder for children of a variety of ages. It’s even enjoyable for the adults….. and, hey, it only lasts 1 hour if it isn’t!
Book tickets online at leedsheritagetheatres.com or call the box office on0113 243 0808
Photographs by Pamela Raith Photography.
