Image Simon Pynt

Cheeky Monkeys – A Pint-Sized Theatre Project

Showcase Event

Little people, big ideas. 

Whiskey & Boots and SVAPA present Cheeky Monkeys – A Pint-Sized Theatre Project.

 Cheeky Monkeys is a platform for children to let loose their ideas. This experiment in theatre making relinquishes all creative decisions to young writers and directors. Children aged 9-12 direct two adult actors in short plays written by year 9 students from the Specialist Visual and Performing Arts program at Mt Lawley Senior High School as part of the 2018 AWESOME Arts Festival presented at PICA on October 1st 2018.

Check out the reviews written  by some young people who came along to the show

Review

Cheeky Monkey

By Elizabeth Logie, age 9, Rosalie Primary School

In this show, two very silly grown-ups act out a series of short plays written by year 9 students and directed by year 4 students. The students did well to make their pieces creative and funny for kids. It was impressive that two actors could play so many different roles in one hour.

We thought that the show was suitable for kids around nine years old, and we think that’s because it was created by kids about that age. I guess they understand the kind of humour we like, and so they succeeded in making it funny for the kids in the audience. It was specially funny when the man dressed up as a girl because you could see his moustache and big beard.

The show was not too fast or too slow, it was just the right speed for us – the right amount of things happened to keep us interested. We liked that the actors interacted with the audience at times, this made us laugh and made us pay attention to the show. Although, with six different shows in one hour, we found it was quite a lot to take in, maybe too much for some people.

I also liked the live soundtrack in the background – we could see the man making sounds and talking over the speakers and this was done well. The funniest part was that they used words on a big screen between the shows, with humorous comments that sometimes made us laugh.

We recommend it to kids over 8 who enjoy a laugh and can concentrate for an hour.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

 Review

Cheeky Monkey

Marcus Logie, age 9, Rosalie Primary School

Six year nine’s wrote a play each, then a year four directed each one. I liked the humour, particularly the exaggerated personalities of the characters. The actors managed to play an impressive array of characters and personalities, even though this meant none of the characters got the chance to develop.

One of the great parts of the show was that there was always one last dark joke at the end of each section, which left me wondering what might happen if the show had gone on longer.

I thought it was interesting to see a kid’s perspective on making a play. To see adults perform this kids’ perspective made me notice that it would be different if kids were performing it, and this got me wondering about the different perspectives.

It was also interactive at some points to a chosen group of audience members, and this was funny to see kids in the audience become part of the play. It made me feel like its not too hard, as long as you put your mind to it, to create or perform a play. This made me think that creating a play is more within reach than I previously thought.

I was impressed that the lighting and music was well timed and well suited to the particular scenes. My favourite part was the humorous messages written on the big screen in between the plays – they were more than just informative – they were conversational, cheerful, and made me laugh.

I think it is suitable for ages 7-11.

I give it 4 stars out of 5. A thoroughly enjoyable play.