Adelaide Festival. Shona Reppe. Odeon Theatre. 5 Mar 2014
This is the Best Show for Children - Theatre Awards UK in 2012. Creator, designer and performer Jona Reppe takes her place amongst a framework filled with instrumentation and devices of Victorian analogy. Dressed in a souped up lab coat, she introduces herself as scrapologist Dr Patricia Baker. And we are going on journey of discovery and investigation like a South Seas explorer through a scrapbook. This is a found object extraordinaire and we must discover its author and why the creator collected.
To the kids who don't know yet, a scrapbook is explained. Dr Baker makes this scrapbook very, very important and her forensic skills are ample. Every bit of matter is probed and sniffed to build a body of evidence. Page by page, the clues are revealed. Some are probed with magnification whose images appear on a nearby screen.
Besides her earnest enthusiasm, what I love about Dr Baker is her use of the scientific method. She is brave enough to make deductions, test them, and if they fail the test, out they go, and a new hypothesis is developed. This is a very valuable and fun lesson for the young'uns.
The mystery is solved in a heart-warming and charming conclusion. But it's no mystery why this show won Britain's top award.
David Grybowski
When: 5 to 9 Mar
Where: Odeon Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
