Reviews & features: Kids

Andy and Mike's… Big Box of Bananas

Fun and frolics in the fun pad

The power of children’s TV was always going to ensure that CBeebies presenter, Andy Day found an audience at the Fringe – and a big one at that. What’s pleasing, therefore, is that it’s thoroughly deserved. Day and his partner in silliness, Mike James…

Crime of the Century

Young lives on the edge

Chickenshed’s strength is simultaneously its weakness. The company boasts of its willingness to take on social issues, yet Crime of the Century is undermined by blunt stereotyping. Drawing the link between knife crime and social depravation in simple…

Anomie

Energy and technology come together

Precarious has been upholding awkward multi-media performance art for three years at Zoo, staging an annual ambitious extravaganza that combines dance, words, a storming soundtrack and video installations. Anomie continues their run of hard-edged…

Burglar Bill

Winning adaptation of kids’ classic

This stage re-imagining of Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s much-loved illustrated fable, by Pandora’s Box theatre company, retains the offbeat humour and otherworldly atmosphere of the original, while throwing in plenty of opportunities for audience…

Dude! Where's My Teddy Bear?

Back in 2003, this rock’n’roll musical was one of the most popular children’s shows on the Fringe. Having played at numerous venues since – including the Glastonbury Festival – Dude is back for another slice of Fringe fun. Young Max has lost his teddy…

Andy and Mike's ... Big Box of Bananas

CBeebies guy goes bonkers

To the nation’s children, presenters on CBeebies and CBBC are practically like gods, bringing great programmes, reading out birthday cards and generally acting the fool. Currently enjoying his place in the sun is Andy Day, a regular smiling face on the…

Lighter Than Air

Balloon comic capers

As any parent of a six-year-old will confirm, kids love watching adults making total balloons of themselves. So, if you take one adult, arm him with a cupboard full of actual balloons, you’re probably on to a winner. ‘The bit where I walk my inflatable…

The Legend of Magnificent Moon & A Most Curious Quest

Double helping of African tales

Having discovered two great stories ripe for adaptation, Mara Menzies of Toto Tales was torn between which show to deliver at this year’s Fringe. But help was at hand. ‘I was deliberating for weeks, when my 7-year-old niece piped up, “Why don’t you do…

Lost World

Cinematic expedition

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s swashbuckling adventure, Lost World is brought to life by The Paper Cinema. Using angle-poise lamps, black-and-white ink illustrations and laptops, a DIY-film takes shape before your eyes. ‘The Paper Cinema is an illustrated…

Kids Hitlist

Our pick of shows for the little festival goer to enjoy

Andy and Mike's Big Box of Bananas, Giraffes Can't Dance,Rapunzel and the Tower of Doom, Room on the Broom, Wind in the Willows, Patrick Monahan's Stories and Fables for Kids that like to sit at Tables!

Giraffes Can't Dance

Uplifting story for little ones

With so many shows to choose from on the Fringe, parents have to be canny about what they take their young charges to. In recent years, the wise money has been spent on a ticket to see Blunderbus Theatre Company. Specialising in musical tales for…

Jumping Mouse

A rodent on a quest

Like its previous Fringe successes – Funeral Games and No Obvious Trauma – Unpacked’s first show for children, Jumping Mouse, has a darkly comic feel. ‘Not that it will be frightening or unappealing,’ says the show’s director, Darren East, ‘but there’s…

Ice Cream Man and the Jelly Incident

Fun with food for kids

Writer Jonny Berliner certainly knows how to create an attention-grabbing show title. After the huge success of Dude! Where’s my Teddy Bear? – which went from Edinburgh sell-out in 2003/4 to runs at festivals nationwide, including Glastonbury…

Room on the Broom

If it’s innovative storytelling, great characterisation and witty dialogue you’re after, then Tall Stories theatre company should tick all your requisite boxes. The same could easily be said of children’s writer, Julia Donaldson – so it’s great to see…

Rapunzel and the Tower of Doom

Storytelling puppetry for all ages

Finding a new way to tell an old tale isn’t easy, but if ever there was a man for the job, it’s Andy Lawrence. The former BBC designer turned puppeteer has enjoyed three sell-out Fringe shows with his company Theatre of Widdershins. And this year’s…

Doctor Austin and Doug Safety's Time-Tastical Time Tale and Visualise: Reloaded

Time travel, techno-clowns and Darwin: science theatre for everyone

Whether it’s cryogenics or time travel, Darwin or the speed of light, one thing the Fringe seldom lacks is imagination. Always on hand to entertain all ages, this year’s Festival looks set to engage and inspire with an array of science-related shows for…

Best of the Rest

Events for children at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Andy and Mike's...Big Box of Bananas, Dilly Dilly, Lost World, Lighter than Air, Giraffes Can't Dance, The Greatest Bubble Show on Earth and Burglar Bill

Tall Stories - Room on the Broom

Dramatisation of Julia Donaldson's tale of an overloaded broomstick

No matter how many books she writes, Julia Donaldson will always be synonymous with one thing: The Gruffalo. Similarly, regardless of their many innovative productions, Tall Stories will remain eternally linked with one show: The Gruffalo. But there’s…

Patrick Monahan - Stories and Fables for Kids that Like to Sit at Tables!

Children's storytelling from an Irish-Iranian stand-up comedian

Patrick Monahan’s clean-cut, affable stand-up act has always been a magnet for families at the Fringe, yet he is only now launching his first fully-fledged children’s show. ‘I have done stand-up for kids, but this is different. I fell in love with the…

Koko the Crocodile

A little touch of Africa

Mara Menzies is fairly new to the storytelling game, but has taken to it like a duck to water. Or rather, like a crocodile to a riverbank – much like the wriggling, paw-waving one that appears in her charming new show. Based on Menzies’ recently…

Hitlist: Kids

The Echo Chamber and We All Fall Down Two top notch shows from En Masse Theatre. Journey down into the dark, damp vaults beneath Edinburgh’s Old Town in The Echo Chamber or learn about the colourful characters in two plague-ridden villages in We All…

Kids events

Getting arty and yucky, all in the same week

If you suffer from Crayola on the carpet and finger-painted furniture, The Big Picture Event (24 Aug) should be the destination of choice for your little ‘uns. Chairman and Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen leads an exquisite event of drawing and…