The Chalk Giants

Tom Hackett says...

An ambitious and playful puppet show, The Chalk Giants takes as its springboard the various folktales about Jack and the giants and weaves a dark, highly visual narrative that makes us question who the good guys in the story really are. Seasoned children’s theatre company Indefinite Articles can barely have had an idea they didn’t pursue when deciding how to tell the story: there’s live chalk drawing, video projection, shadow puppetry, miniature paper puppetry, a marionette and many other techniques thrown into the mix. It’s deliberately rough around the edges and doesn’t always work, but is an exhilarating journey with some breathtaking moments.

The plot suffers slightly from a lack of likeable characters: Jack comes across as a hubristic, brutish egotist, but the giants are not quite well developed enough to gain our sympathy either. Still, one can’t help but admire the sheer breadth of ideas here, and some of the imagery will remain with the young audience for a long time to come.

Samantha Ovenstone says...

The Chalk Giants is a good show with puppetry, videos, shadow effects and chalk drawings. The two actors cleverly mix all of these things together, although sometimes it doesn’t quite work. One of the performers provides background music by using various instruments. The show tells the stories of Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Slayer, but from the giants’ perspective. Jack is a brutal killer that just wants fame and fortune.

Throughout the show they use lots of equipment to create special effects which often works well, like when the video camera projects small things on to a big screen. Some parts of the play are a bit dark and could have been lifted by a joke or something funny. There are a few good surprises like Jack’s pop-up house and the running horse. Overall it’s an enjoyable play and better than your average puppet show!