Presented at The Waterside Arts Centre in Sale by Stuff And Nonsense Theatre Company, this was a one hour retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's story of the rather dim-witted Emperor who has so many clothes, he can never decide what to wear, and so for his birthday he orders a brand new set of clothes for the occasion. Two unscrupulous conmen pretend to be tailors in order to gain food, accommodation and a whole large bag of money, and they design the perfect outfit for him. An outfit that is made from a special material that only intelligent people can see. With this proviso, no-one in the emperor's court wants to appear stupid and so all agree that they can see the outfit, and so by the time it is presented to the Emperor himself, he too has to admit that he 'sees' it, for fear of being thought unintelligent himself! He orders a birthday parade round the town and rides on his horse to the cheers of the crowd. The cheers soon become jeers however when one citizen simply shouts out the obvious fact that he is naked. It all has a lovely little ending though for the Emperor, as he finds comfort and friendship among the townsfolk and a pig, and, preferring their kindness and hospitality to the cold and lonely atmosphere in the palace decides to live there as a commoner. And as for the two con-artists? Well, in this version at least, they get away with it!
The whole story was told by two performers who not only acted several characters themselves but also handled different styles of puppets too for both the servants of the court and the townsfolk; oh, and a pig!
The show is advertised as fun for all the family, however I would tend to put a lower age restriction of 4 years on to this. Despite it being extremely well done, colourful and totally PC, there were still lots of sections which had little action and were quite wordy which was, even with yesterday's young audience beginning to bore just a little.
Personally though, from my adult perspective, I loved it! The set was amazing, and very well thought out. What started as the living room and bedroom of a father and daughter was turned into the fantasy land of the Emperor with seamless ease and all the little doors and drawers which opened for each new puppet character were a delight. 
The dialogue was fast-moving, and the story very clear and easy to follow. And there was something in there for everyone; including some lovely inoffensive but clever jokes for the older ones amongst the audience. The poet citizen was a joy, and my favourite line from the whole play came very near the beginning when they were saving that umbrella for a rainy day! There was also some lovely physical humour. Very cleverly done and the young children near to me loved the actress's physicality and face-pulling.
The two performers, father and daughter at the beginning then becoming the two conmen designers Bolshy and Banana (think Dolce And Gabbana!) as well as the actor taking on the role of pint-sized Emperor. Half-human, half-puppet; a very clever idea; were Jenny Harrold and Toby Gascoigne, (who also wrote the songs), and they worked extremely well together, and evidenced so many different talents including a lovely Geordie pig!
The whole thing was directed with love by Niki McCretton, who obviously understood the genre and the target audience and was able to bring together the two multi-talented performers with a lovely set created by Edwina Bridgeman, and some Muppet-inspired puppets (including a pig) created by Holly Miller, to create this energetic, immensely watchable and safe piece of theatre.
The company are at Sale until the 16th February, and then continue their tour to Leeds Carriageworks 18 and 19 February and then come back to the North West for the very last date of their tour on Sunday 3 July at the Atkinson in Southport. If you have a young family then there is no better way of entertaining them, and you, for an hour!
Oh, and did I mention there's a pig?!
Reviewer: Mark Dee
Reviewed: 13th February 2016
