Shropshire Star - 27 Nov 2007Musical show gets everyone involved
The Antonius Players with Louis De Bernieres
"Don't sniff the goats' feet" was Louis de Bernieres' opening remark to his audience at the Lion Hotel.
"Nightingales, Elephants and Alexander Beetle" is a show designed to appeal to children of all ages: it's agreeably old-fashioned, involves the audience and includes a selection of poems from some of the very finest writers in our language.
The opening impression was a "wow" from the audience - seldom had we seen such a collection of instruments on stage.
This was especially remarkable since two members of the group were indisposed so just Mr De Bernieres and multi-instrumentalist Ilone held the stage for an hour of music and verse about animals and the natural world.
Louis himself is obviously a cat lover so he featured a number called "Kittens" which he played on the guitar as well as reading one of T.S. Eliot's cat poems.
Many of the youthful members of the audience were given percussion instruments which they used as part of the show. Some of the kids - including my nine-year old grandson - banged the bass drum on stage.
And there was almost certainly a world first when Smetana's "Vltava" was played on a flute, a guitar and goats' feet.
Louis read poems by James Reeves, Rudyard Kipling, AA Milne, RL Stevenson and Ted Hughes; his delivery was low-key and absolutely appropriate.
Shropshire Music Trust deserve congratulations for this departure from their mainstream programming.
Andrew Petch
Last Updated : 13/12/2007