Manchester Theatre News & Reviews

REVIEW - Le Gateau Chocolat's flamboyant energy, theatre mastery, clever writing and genuine warmth, makes I Wish a special production for all to enjoy!

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On Friday, we were invited to HOME, Manchester to see I Wish. Read what our reviewer Leanne Parker had to say about this wonderful family musical...

As November turns to December, the signs of festive cheer have been very much present in Manchester City Centre for a few weeks already now. But despite the twinkling lights and nods to this magical season all around, something has felt distinctly...absent. The World at large doesn’t feel especially festive, or twinkly, or magical right now, so as my four-year-old son and I stepped through the doors of Home, Manchester, in readiness to review tonight’s staging of ‘I Wish’, there was a big part of me that hoped for something that might feel akin to joy. I’m a tough audience to be honest – not one to bestow praise, especially lavish praise, on something that doesn’t feel deserving. And my little boy is an even harsher critic than me – having not yet, to my continued frustration, shown any signs of inheriting my love of the magic of theatre in any capacity whatsoever. So, if it doesn’t capture his attention, he makes it clear, fast! when I tell you that we both ended this experience, not with something akin to joy, but with actual, tangible, effervescent joy, please understand that this is me, and him, giving this piece of work, our hearty recommendation.

Written by Nigerian born cabaret, opera, musical theatre, drag and live art artist Le Gateau Chocolat (Le Gateau Chocolat, I Chocolat, Duckie, ICONS), directed by Rachel Bagshaw (Unicorn Theatre Artistic Director) with original Music and Lyrics by Seiriol Davies (How to Wing Against History, Milky Peaks, Betty: A Sort of Musical) and narrated by Julian Clary, I Wish tells the tale of Fairy godmother Effie. We the audience, join Effie as she celebrates arriving at one wish away from having achieved a dizzyingly high milestone in numbers of wishes granted (her brumblefillionth wish to be specific!), and she promises to bestow this fabulously numbered wish upon one of the lucky people in the crowd.

Performed in Manchester by Le Gateau Chocolat himself (after illness preventing him taking the role to the stage in London and New York), Effie is everything you’d want a fabulous fairy godmother to be. In fact, she is the fairy godmother you’d conjure up in your mind if someone asked you to imagine Walt Disney and Ru Paul had a fairy godmother shaped love child.

Le Gateau Chocolat sashays and shimmies and sings across the performance space like someone born to be there in an endless stream of fabulously over the top outfits, which some of the children simply couldn’t keep their hands off. And Le Gateau Chocolat takes all of that in his stride, allowing the children to reach for a cuddle, and involving them and the wider adult audience with humour and ease, like being around an old, very fabulous friend.

As the story unfolds, Effie shares with us three of her most memorable wishes - a woman who desperately wants to be beautiful; a Cinderella who wants to go to the ball; and a boy who wants to fly and stay forever young - and how she changed the lives of the recipients. That is until the voice of Julian Clarey pipes up, to suggest that they might have had very different outcomes than Effie likes to think. And so back we go, to the three wish recipients, to see for sure exactly what happened once Effie sashayed away after granting their wishes. We quickly learn that all was not quite as well as Effie had hoped and see her make the ultimate sacrifice and pass on her power of wishes to each and every one of us, before making her dramatic exit, as only she can, by wearing the entire fluffy, cloud-like, feathered backdrop!

What I love about the message of this performance is that the magic of any wish, is to be found in the effort you are willing to put into the creation of the wish, and that the magic of making someone else’s wishes come true is even more heightened. Taking this even further, there are nods to the impact of even the smallest actions when those actions are carried out for the good of another – when ‘I wish’, becomes ‘We Wish’. And that’s why this story is utterly perfect for children, but actually, also a bit of a reminder for us adults too, to actually see, and respond to, the things that other people need in a way that is meaningful and that shows humanness, in a world where too many people are blind to the needs of others, too busy to notice and too out of touch with that core humanness and the power of ‘Us’ over ‘Me’.

The takeaway as a parent was the reminder I have a responsibility in this world, to raise my child to be the kind of human being that this planet, this society and every member of the diverse kaleidoscope of people who exist within it, will never need to recover from; that despite the noise around him, the people who will populate his world and influence him both in positive and sadly, potentially negative ways, to raise a good human being who is good to others. And that’s a responsibility I take incredibly seriously.

In summary, we came for joy and through Le Gateau Chocolat’s flamboyant energy, theatre mastery, clever writing and genuine warmth, we left with rainbow-coloured, glitter bombed, confetti covered (literally, I am covered as is my child; I mean heck even my shoe had confetti inside it when I got home!) joy and from the bottom of my heart, I, on behalf of myself and my son, thank him for that.

WE SCORE I WISH...