{"id":550,"date":"2015-07-06T15:30:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T13:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=550"},"modified":"2015-07-06T15:30:26","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T13:30:26","slug":"once-upon-a-fire-grab-the-kiddies-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=550","title":{"rendered":"Once Upon A Fire: grab the kiddies &#038; go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Once-Upon-A-Fire126.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-551\" src=\"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Once-Upon-A-Fire126.jpg\" alt=\"Once-Upon-A-Fire126\" width=\"295\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Once-Upon-A-Fire126.jpg 295w, https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Once-Upon-A-Fire126-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 295px) 100vw, 295px\" \/><\/a>Once Upon A Fire<\/em> is great.<\/p>\n<p>It should, however, be correctly categorised as Family Fare \/ Children\u2019s Theatre\u2026 I love watching kiddy shows but I just like to know beforehand that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be doing.<\/p>\n<p>OK. Nevertheless:<\/p>\n<p>The show is vibey and jivey and jazzy. The performers, David Matamela, Macmillan Mabaleka and Sandile Shabangu, work hard to keep the crowd happy and there\u2019s lovely interaction with the little ones in the audience. And, granted, a number of chuckles are raised from us bigger ones too.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The sweet story about the prince finding his courage sends a great message about overcoming one\u2019s fears. The performers perfectly embody every animal known to man along the journey and employ song and dance and puppet work and shadow play to tell their story\u2026 it\u2019s visually stimulating and should\u00a0keep the focus of any ADHD suffering child.<\/p>\n<p>It needs tightening in some places \u2013 a little too much fabric-dancing which remains the same and becomes monotonous. And there are a couple of awkward transitions which effect the rhythm every now and then.<\/p>\n<p>But overall it\u2019s a bright and bubbly, fun and friendly\u00a0piece of theatre. The children in front of me were practically falling out of their chairs and squealing with delight throughout. I recommend grabbing your kids and getting there \u2013 they\u2019ll be greatly entertained and will probably learn an important thing or two too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; Sarah Roberson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalartsfestival.co.za\/events\/once-upon-a-fire\/\">here<\/a> for production info. <em>Once Upon A Fire<\/em> is on tomorrow 07 July @ 12pm @ Centenary Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once Upon A Fire is great. It should, however, be correctly categorised as Family Fare \/ Children\u2019s Theatre\u2026 I love watching kiddy shows but I just like to know beforehand &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=550\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[139,205,489,577,622,722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}