You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
★★★☆☆ The very definition of Bless
theSpace on Niddry St (Venue 9): Fri 4 – Sat 12 August 2017
Review by Martin Gray
Good Grief, Peanuts comes to life at theSpace on Niddry St in a fun production of Clark Gesner’s sixties musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, that could be a little sharper.
Charlie Brown is having a bad day. Again. He’s the school misfit, the blockhead, the manager who can’t lead his team to a baseball win.
The cast of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. Pic: Tribe Porty
His friend Linus is addicted to dragging his baby blanket around, Lucy is permanently bad-tempered, the Little Red-Headed Girl doesn’t even know he’s alive. Then there’s sister Sally, a self-professed philosopher, Schroeder the mini-Beethoven… even his dog, Snoopy, isn’t particularly impressed by Charlie Brown.
The kids of Tribe Porty Youth Theatre look the part in some terrific costumes, though Linus’s trademark blanket is somewhat outsize. And they’re obviously having great fun bringing some of the most famous sequences from Charles M Schulz’ classic newspaper strip to life.
The highlight of the show is Sally Brown’s Clarence Darrow-style defence of a coathanger sculpture for which she’s been given a ‘C’ grade – this terrific young actress will be doing Lady Macbeth in a few years…
Real bite
Also excellent is the show’s Lucy, who puts real bite into her performance as the crabby girl who wants to buy a ‘queendom’. Or maybe that should be ‘crabbit’, given several of the kids don’t seem to be even attempting the accent – and given what a huge slice of Americana Peanuts is, some effort really should be made. What happened to US telly corrupting our kids? Spooky-toned teacher Miss Othmar, mind, is spot-on.
And it’s impossible to deny the audience appreciation – it’s fun trying to work out who’s related to which member of the cast. The pianist did a splendid job accompanying the songs, while the mini-dancers elicited aahs every time they appeared.
This isn’t the slickest show but it’s hard to dislike such a sweet production, and the enthusiasm of everyone involved is to be applauded and encouraged.
Running time: 1 hour.
theSpace on Niddry St, Niddry Street, EH1 1TH (Venue 9)
Friday 4 – Saturday 12 August 2017
Daily: 10.05am.
Tickets and details: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/you-re-a-good-man-charlie-brown
Tribe Porty website: https://tribepyt.org/
Tribe Porty facebook page: @tribepyt
Tribe Porty on Twitter: @TribePYT
ENDS
