What on earth makes a theatre company think that creating a piece about doggy poo is a good idea? How do you persuade an actress that taking on the role of a talking turd is a big break for her?
Well, firstly, this production is aimed at children, and kids of all ages find poo funny. But more importantly this is a rather heartwarming story with a message: that nothing is useless in this world. Even an object as seemingly worthless as a piece of poo has a use if she can but find it. And this piece of poo finds its purpose in providing the nutrients for a dandelion seed to grow into a flower.
Costumes are colourful (apart from the necessarily brown-coloured star of the show): I particularly liked the dancing red pepper. And it was a nice touch to have one of the actors warm up the audience by asking what noise various animals make, and contrasting them with the noises the same animals make in Korea. As well as breaking the ice, it made the point that there are different ways of saying the same thing, and explained in advance why, when the chickens came on stage, they weren’t making quite the noises that a young British audience might expect.
Overall this was a charming production which the children in the audience thoroughly enjoyed. And I know at least one adult who has been going to see this every year at Edinburgh. This was my first visit and I was very happy to make the show’s acquaintance.
Hello from one of the at least one adults, although in the interests of accuracy I should point out that I haven’t been each year to the Edinburgh Fringe since 2009, which was (I think) when The Dandelion’s Story was first presented in Edinburgh. That said, there have been some years since 2009 when Modl Theatre did not go to Edinburgh (I believe their first visit was in 2008 with “Mong-Yeon – A Love in Dream”), and it might be true that I’ve seen The Dandelion’s Story in each year that it’s been in Edinburgh! And usually more than once! (In fact in 2009 I saw it twice in Edinburgh, taking some people with me on the second occasion, and once in London.)
So I’m very pleased you enjoyed it. I saw it again yesterday, with a Korean who was born in Seoul, but was brought up in the UK, studying cello (eventually at the Julliard School in New York City), and is now – amongst several other things (she’s been involved with at least two events in this year’s Edinburgh Festivals) – Assistant Principal Cello with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
http://www.sualee.com/cello
* “What on earth makes a theatre company think that creating a piece about doggy poo is a good idea? How do you persuade an actress that taking on the role of a talking turd is a big break for her?”
– Well, the answers to both those questions can be found here
http://londonkoreanlinks.net/2009/08/21/the-dandelions-story-another-edinburgh-hit/
where in her comments Youngmi hints that the original story is famous in Korea, and can also be found at the top left hand corner of the front of this year’s flyer, which reads “The Korean best selling children’s book”.
Which changes the questions to “What made a Korean author think that writing a book for children about doggy poo a good idea?” and “Why was he correct?”.