Swimmy, Frederick & Inch By Inch

15 Nov

The Mermaid Theatre of Novia Scotia from Canada was back in Singapore. Last year they brought us The Hungry Caterpillar at Victoria Theatre. This time at the same place, they performed 3 stories using shadow play/puppets adapted from Leo Lionni's books bearing the same titles:

Swimmy was about a clever black fish who devised a way to save a school of red fishes from being swallowed up by a big fish. He taught them how to form and swim in the shape of a big fish (if you have watched and remember Finding Nemo where the fishes formed all sorts of shapes to communicate with Marlin, the papa clown fish; you would know what I mean) with Swimmy as the black eye.

Frederick was about a mouse who composed poems throughout spring, summer and autumn whilst the other mice were working hard to gather food for winter. When the food the mice stored for winter ran out, Frederick narrated his poems to the other mice to 'wrap' them in the warmth of the summer sun and 'see' the colours of flowers.

Inch By Inch was about a worm who escaped falling prey to birds by using his measuring skills (using the length of his body) to measure the beak of a toucan, the tail of a swallow, the leg of a flamingo.

It was the first puppet show in a theatre setting for S.P. And it was the first time I brought both kids to a performance (followed by lunch) alone. Glad to report that the kids were mostly well behaved except for 2 minor incidents: (1) Peanut was bored during the 2nd act and wanted to leave; cereals and biscuits saved the day (2) Sweet Potato tore a ball from the Christmas decor lining the door of Dome's cafe on our way out.