Stick Man

Today we went to the Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays, to watch an adaptation of Stick Man by Julia Donaldson. This is one of our favourite bedtime stories, and features Santa, so it suits a winter theatre production really well. If you have little ones, it’s a great read and I’d thoroughly recommend it.

The Lowry theatre is housed in a very unusual looking modern building (the kind that divides opinion), and was one of the earliest buildings to be built as part of a huge regeneration programme of the area. This now includes Media City too, so it’s a pretty important part of Manchester. There’s plenty of other things to do at Salford Quays: the Imperial War Museum North, the Lowry Art Gallery, a shopping outlet, plenty of eateries and Old Trafford is just across the water. It’s easy to make a day out of the area, even without the theatre. There’s also a snowman trail at the moment, where you can find twelve giant snowmen, who represent forty years of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. Who would have thought The Snowman has been around for forty years? To me it still seems really young and modern and timeless. (As someone who is very shortly to turn forty, I’m really hoping that’s the kind of thing that will soon be said about me!)

Stick Man is showing in the Quays Theatre and I was definitely impressed with the venue. We had seats four rows back in the stalls right at the end of a row. In most theatres I have visited, the seats at the end of rows tend to have a restricted view, but these didn’t. The seats folded down but didn’t spring back up, (this is an important consideration when you are with a three year old!) and with a provided booster seat, Isobel got a really good view. The production is by Scamp Theatre and was just under an hour in length. A team of three talented actors were on stage and the show was very entertaining throughout. There was singing, dancing, music and really effective use of props. The audience were involved just the right amount to draw them into the story. Isobel was absolutely mesmerised and laughed a lot in all the right places, so it was definitely a hit with us!

This is the second children’s production we have seen at The Lowry. The first was What the Ladybird Heard, also by Julia Donaldson. Please be aware that I’m not just trying to plug Julia Donaldson here, but her books are great and we read them a lot. If I see a production based on one of them, I’m likely to want tickets and that’s just how it is! It was really lovely to be part of an audience who clearly love the book; lots of children around us (and their parents!) seemed to know the story really well.

Before we became parents, my husband and I would visit the theatre once or twice a year, normally taking in the big musical productions in Liverpool or Manchester. Then for a while, we just couldn’t go because we had a baby. Recently, it has become possible again and there are plenty of shows around that are suitable for young children. It’s not quite the experience that it was, but nonetheless it still feels special as I think the theatre always should. It’s something I want Isobel to remember she did as a child with her parents.

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