I'm a huge fan of Shockheaded Peter because my strict grandmother read me Heinrich Hoffmann's cautionary tales as a child. People like Johnny Suck A Thumb and the Scissor Man featured large in my imagination. If you sucked your thumb, this terrifying person came through the door to cut it off. And Fidgety Phil, the boy who couldn't sit still at table, gets killed by all the knives and forks.
These were strong images for me, especially the spiky hair of the main character, Straw Peter. Johnny Head In The Air was applied to me because he was lost in a dream world - he ends up walking into a canal and drowning.
Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch have coagulated a wicked little show out of these stories. It finds the warped mind in everyone. Everybody enjoys being terrified by figures like the Scissor Man because it plumbs into your childhood nightmares.
The set looks like a cut-out Victorian theatre box with lots of shadowy, melodramatic lighting, darkened eyebrows and strange puppetry. The basic theme is that killing children is fun. It's black humour played with beautiful levity, particularly in Martyn Jacques' songs.
I can't wait to see them done now by David Thomas And Two Pale Boys. I've heard nothing but extraordinary things about David. He has a completely original voice and he's a huge man. There's something other-worldly about him. I've seen Shockheaded Peter three times and will see it again. But I wouldn't say it was suitable for children. I'm certainly not taking my son!
