Owl at Home review: Edinburgh fringe show offers a warm children's hoot
A children's stage adaptation of Arnold Lobel's Owl at Home is running at the Edinburgh fringe, exploring themes of solitude and adapting to change. The production, aimed at ages five and up, is praised for its warmth and inventive humour.
A stage adaptation of Arnold Lobel's book series Owl at Home is being performed at the Edinburgh fringe festival. While Lobel's better-known work Frog and Toad Are Friends centres on friendship and togetherness, Owl at Home explores solitude and being at peace with one's surroundings, even when winter brings a snowstorm to your doorstep.
The adaptation, written by Rina Vergano for Theatr Iolo and directed by Lee Lyford, stars George Williams as Owl, his hair styled into gelled tufts. The show opens with Owl dozing in an armchair on a set designed by Anisha Fields, which preserves the cosy feel of Lobel's original illustrations while avoiding excessive sweetness. Owl's roost itself acts as a quirky character, filled with odd contraptions, dark wooden furniture and a periscope for nervously watching the outside world.
Songs and physical comedy
The stories from the book collection are woven together with songs and physical comedy, including a tail-feather-shaking exercise routine and a scuffle with a dust buster. The production is full of charming details: Owl sleeps in an eye mask worn over his horn-rimmed glasses, which he can swivel into a makeshift sporty headband. Rather than hunting, he traps chocolate mice and hangs them out to ripen, and Williams's performance extends to a convincingly alarming rendition of Owl coughing up a pellet. Children in the audience are likely to recognise the trick of turning a half-eaten pancake into a smile or a crescent moon.
Aimed at audiences aged five and older, the production retains the same offbeat, gentle tone as the source material, with new additions blending smoothly into Lobel's original stories about the wind paying a visit, mysterious lumps under a blanket, and filling a kettle with tears. Altogether, the show conveys Owl's wisdom about staying open to the world and the risks of clinging too tightly to habit, whatever one's age or feathers.
