Celebrating Freya’s eighth birthday. Left to right, Shamira Turner, Clare Beresford and Dominic Conway.
- Crocosmia
- Written and performed by Clare Beresford, Dominic Conway and Shamira Turner
- Directed by Alexander Scott
- At Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto
Resistance is futile. Crocosmia, an Edinburgh Fringe hit having its North American premiere in Toronto, may have moments of insufferable tweeness, but ultimately only the stoniest of audience members will fail to be moved by this tale of the fragility and resilience of children.
Crocosmia, the debut production from England's Little Bulb theatre, concerns the tragedy of the three Brackenberg siblings: long and limber 10-year-old twins Finnley (Dominic Conway) and Sophia (Shamira Turner) and Freya (Clare Beresford), their awkward younger sister aged seven and three-quarters.
The trio have a pair of quirky and unbelievably gentle parents - also played by Conway and Turner - who somehow still find the time for romance: When they can't afford an anniversary trip to Paris, they take an imaginary one using an overhead projector instead.
This idyllic world is shattered, however, when both parents die in a car crash. The Brackenberg children are orphaned and, as it turns out, the shambolic variety show we are watching is their way of dealing with their grief.
The three act out the story of their love and loss of their parents and subsequent adoption with an old record collection, a fish made out of a half-eaten carrot and shoes and spray bottles that turn into make-shift puppets.
Inventively directed by Alexander Scott, the show is full of garbled songs and chaotic dances, but what finally broke through the hard shell of my heart was the Brackenberg Battenberg Puppet Theatre. Here, the children revisit favourite memories of their parents with variously sized prepackaged snack cakes - in this case, acting out a bittersweet trip Freya and her parents took to the park swings. As the cakes careen through the air and the kids take surreptitious little bites, there is something so sweet and sorrowful about it all that the tears began to flow and didn't really stop for me for the rest of the evening.
Adults playing at being children can leave me frigid, but these fresh-faced, young actors have a physical advantage that makes them more believable than most. The twins are more cartoony, but psychologically they're true to life - sometimes ganging up on Freya, sometimes acting as substitute parents to her.
But it was Beresford's shy performance as the awkward Freya - her hands flapping about, constantly batting away at her runny nose - that really yanked at my heartstrings. She has a little presentation called Freya Knows Best, where she teaches the audience how to grow a plant she calls a crocosmia. It involves planting a light bulb in the earth - a mistake you could imagine a kid of her age making. When it actually blooms later, however, it's magical and cathartic.
In some ways, Freya is the English answer to Kirsten Thomson's much-loved Claudia of I, Claudia - which, appropriately enough, is headed to their side of the ocean this summer. There's also an affinity with the young characters in Legoland from Victoria's Atomic Vaudeville. Anyone who liked those Canadian shows will probably appreciate this one.
Crocosmia runs until Saturday.