Review: The Bubbles and Mustard Show at Civic Theatre

<i>Bubbles and Mustard</i> is happily chaotic. Photo / Supplied

Spaceships rumbled, lions roared, fish smacked their lips - and that was just the audience. Onstage were cream pies, water pistols and 101 squeaking, groaning, clicking, splashing, whirring and popping props, each one a surprise hiding in brightly colour boxes.

This happily chaotic school holiday show is aimed at age 8 and under, and Sarah Somerville, a woman of many hair ribbons and (metaphorical) hats - writer, director, producer, actor - knows her market. She creates an immediate, natural rapport with the children as their tour guide Olive Olsen (her name surely a homage to the After School host of an earlier generation) and ensures the children shout out from the start.

Not that they needed much encouragement. We were behind the scenes at a radio show and the usual cast, we were told, is sick. The audience, a step or two ahead of the three bumbling characters, volunteered to be part of the make-believe and help make the noises needed to "broadcast" the play-within-the-play even before they were asked.

Slapstick Ed (Tama Jarman) ran around like a headless chook with a rubbish bin on his foot - before taking it off and pretending to spew in it. "Eewww!" shouted the delighted audience. What about some sandwiches made of Marmite and pineapple lumps? "Yuck!" they shrieked.

The big boss Maximilian Montgomery the Third (Julian Wilson) stalks around mock-sternly in glitter-stripe trousers (the bold costumes are made by Somerville's mum, Lee), but the show is scare-free. All three actors are engaging and enjoying themselves.

Lasting just under an hour, it's fantastic value at $12.50 a seat. There's even colouring-in to keep everyone amused before the show starts. Whereas movies can make the audience think they're having fun by watching others have fun, everybody has fun together in The Bubbles and Mustard Show.