Review of Stick Man at The King's, Edinburgh

Stick man beware of the Buckies!!

We headed down as a family of 4 on Sunday 8th September to watch Stick Man, which is adapted from the book by Julia Donaldson (absolute favourite in our house), the multi award-winning author of some of the world best loved children books, most notably the modern classic The Gruffalo which has sold over 13 million copies worldwide( If you don’t know this book then you must live under a rock!). Julia is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, which have sold millions of copies and have been translated into over 40 languages.

The UK tour is to celebrate its 10-year anniversary (No, you feel old) produced by Freckle Productions, who have brought many of Julia Donaldson’s books to the stage including Zog, Tiddler and Other Terrific Tales and Tabby McTat.

When we received our invite to go watch Stick Man at the King's in Edinburgh, I wasn’t sure if I should just bring my oldest or risk it and make it a family day out. So, I went for it and took the risk that my spirited (feral) 2-year-old son wouldn’t ruin the performance for everyone else in the room with his shenanigans. Daddy was coming a long too with strict instructions that if Cassi was to start “kicking off” he was to be swiftly removed faster than you can say “oh stick man, oh stick man”.

We arrived about 20 minutes before curtain time and my darling daughter spotted the merch stand, and being the softy, weak willed mother I craved and purchased a key ring of stick man for 6 pounds, Cora was delighted and stick man is now attached to her school bag.

Stick Man lives in the family tree with his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three...’

But what starts off as a morning jog becomes quite the misadventure for Stick Man: a dog wants to play fetch with him, a swan builds a nest with him, and he even ends up on a fire! How will Stick Man ever get back to the family tree?

The shows starts with a catchy song which continues through the show, great use of simple props and fantastic pantomime like audience participation kept even us adults entertained. The cast ran through the audience and around the seats which left my children squealing with excitement.

A highlight for us all was the ball being bounced around the audience, Cassi and Cora were so desperate to get a go at volleying it back on stage.

I was surprised of the poor turn out as this show deserved to have a full house, not only because it managed to keep my son on his bottom for the whole 55 minutes but because of how much every since member of the family will love this, my husband said “it was good” and that’s really saying something for a man who finds fireworks underwhelming.

Though the Edinburgh run has finished, look out for Stick Man heading to you soon – You can find all dates HERE

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review