Effectively a 35 minute opera for preschoolers, Handa’s Surprise is adapted from Eileen Browne’s much loved 1995 book. Akeyo (Rujenne Green) wants to take a gift of fruit to her friend Handa (Hannah Akhalu), but all the fruit she gathers is eaten by animals she meets on the way, so it’s fortunate that a goat knocks some tangerines off a tree. Tangerines – and every child in the audience is given a segment – turn out to be Handa’s favourite and that’s the surprise.
It’s a rhythmic story in which each fruit celebrated in song, in an African language. The music is very simple and one child, at the performance I saw, was singing some of it back to them before we were even halfway through. Both performers have clear, sweet voices and their intonation is excellent.
The fruit eating animals are puppets (by Peter O’Rourke) which either emerge from the edge of Sophia Lovell Smith’s sandy African set or are assembled from around Green’s person. The delicate teetering monkey is attractive and we get a neat zebra from inverting a neck sling that Akhalu is wearing. The giraffe is probably the tour de force moving with spindly elegance on its bamboo legs.
The children and their adults are seated on the floor round three sides of the square playing space and the puppets tour the audience to wave at, inspect, and gently peck the children in the audience which goes down well.
Review by Susan Elkin