Tangram Theatre, Crunch

Review in Issue 18-4 | Winter 2006

Being greeted by a cheery man merrily plucking away at his guitar is a lovely way to start the day. Not only to start the day, but to launch the beginnings of our universe as we go back, back, back to when Eve took her first bite of the apple: shame for mankind, bonus for Crunch.

From Adam and Eve we travel through the stories of Isaac Newton, Snow White, William Tell and many more. With all the action stemming from this spherical fruity delight, the timelines, the facts and fiction surrounding it can skip and twist, with The Apple always anchoring the piece to its core. Charming, witty and playful, the four actors give self-assured performances; they know their subject matter inside out and commit to the light-heartedness of it all with genuine sincerity.

The songs are great but there are too many of them and they slow the pace of the piece. And, like the mini doses of cyanide that we are informed the pips contain, there are dips of quality in the performance that do leave a bad taste in your mouth. Luckily, the good outweighs the bad.

At the end of it all, I am handed an apple and I feel lucky. Never have I found apples so interesting and I feel honoured that this one will become a part of me – quite literally – and I will take my place in its history. Making the seemingly mundane magical and doing it with sparse simplicity, Crunch is a tasty, bite-size, coup de théâtre.

Presenting Artists
Presenting Festival
Presenting Venue
Date Seen
  1. Aug 2006

This article in the magazine

Issue 18-4
p. 26