Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To inspire children in the theatre requires even greater story-telling ability than what might be perceived or even enjoyed by adult audiences, to get inside the minds of nature’s greatest critics and quite often biggest supporter when engaged properly, is of the upmost importance.

To make children care about the world around them is significant, to let their unbound imagination flourish in a way that sees them appreciate theatre as part of the solution, that is the greatest of gifts that an actor or entertainer can bestow; and in Cusan Theatre Productions’ The Princess of the Rainforest, that sense of power is handed to the children who attend in such a way that it is more than heartening to witness.

Using stories that are inspired by the Latin American and the creator of the performances own Columbian culture, Cusan Theatre bring these tales to life with colour, style and a strong flavour, a beguiling keenness of exploring the riches and a truth of introducing minds to other ways of thinking, to open the possibility in the young of making understand that a big city is one way in which to live, but on the other side of the world, there are children just like them who are happy, enriched and full of their own tales and dreams, that this large rock of a home is one where we can mix freely.

The Princess of the Rainforest is colourful, a bright array of animals and creatures brought to life as puppets tell the story of the rainforest; what it also does is utilise the idea of recycling, that everything that the child sees is made from something else, lessons that can be learned early and be seen as fun, boundless pleasure that be carried on at home.

A wonderful performance by Cusan Theatre, a lot of thought and passion that comes forth as the story unfolds and one that delights the child in the theatre and the child within the adult to come.

Ian D. Hall