Who wouldn’t like to be beside this seaside? Noi and his dad share a cosy home with colourful bunting, sands on the doorstep and views of a stripy lighthouse. The Storm Whale, an adaptation of the 2013 picture book by Benji Davies and its sequel, opens with a romantic ode to the briny air. These gulls swoop majestically, rather than cause a nuisance.
Lydia Denno’s designs are idyllic but Davies’s story foregrounds how forlorn Noi (Emily Essery) feels while his dad (Richard Lounds) is away fishing each day. When a little whale is washed up, Noi gratefully befriends the animal before accepting he must set it free. Director Matt Aston’s adaptation, for children aged four to eight, sensitively explores how solitude need not mean loneliness. It’s a lesson passed on to Noi by the mother he has lost, as Aston sketches in a fuller backstory for the family.
The script is touching and evocative but its earnest messages also grow repetitive and the dialogue can be wearyingly solemn – you miss the raucous fun of this theatre’s The Singing Mermaid. Noi’s story is retrospectively framed by his friend Flo (Géhane Strehler), whose references to a midlife crisis will mean little to young audiences. Far better are flights of fancy such as the imagined strawberries-and-cream taste if you licked that lighthouse.
It’s a shame only one of Noi’s six cats is a fully realised puppet but they are cutely named after coastal towns and, in a sweet touch, the marmalade one is Sandwich. The whale puppet, made by Keith Frederick, is a squishy delight, with quivering tail and glinting eyes. Its sense of wonder is gradually realised through Sue Dacre’s puppet direction.
The tempest that washes up the whale is beautifully rendered in Hayley Del Harrison’s choreography to composer Julian Butler’s jig. There are stirring sea shanties, too, and an array of light sources are creatively used in Jason Salvin’s lighting design.
While affectionately illustrated, Davies’ original tale is not particularly playful, the language a bit flat. Aside from Noi wrestling the whale into his cart and hiding it in his tub, this unusual partnership lacks the offbeat humour of Oliver Jeffers’ boy-and-penguin double act in Lost and Found. There are two set pieces – when Noi returns the whale to the water and, in a less focused second half based on The Storm Whale in Winter, Noi’s father is rescued at sea. Both scenes are too brief. With wilder humour and a more adventurous spirit, the show would go down a storm.
