Last Updated on August 22, 2022 by HodgePodgeDays
AD – Given Press Tickets for review purposes. Not paid.
Based on the classic children’s book series by David McKee, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is on at The Lowry on 19th-21st February. I took the boy along to the first showing of this cheery production aimed at pre-schoolers.
Elmer is a vibrant, funny and kind elephant. He’s different from the other elephants in his herd and he’s not sure he’s happy about that. He tries his very hardest to blend in, unsuccessfully, so he meets up with some of his animal friends who help him to realise that being different is just fine.
Along the way he meets singing frogs, a giraffe, a lion, birds, monkeys and zebras. Soon his herd start to miss him, rejoining them Elmer realises that his friends have always valued and loved his unique personality and appearance.
Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is around 50 minutes long. It’s lively and engaging, with catchy songs, brilliant puppetry and some audience participation. The set is colourful and simple, the puppets are great fun, but the puppeteers are what makes the show. All of them were dressed in safari clothes and blended in beautifully. It’s always the mark of an accomplished puppeteer that you watch the puppet and not the person.
We really liked the songs, they’re the kind of thing we could listen to in the car and sing along to on long journeys. There were some funny moments, some touching moments and a lot of feel good stuff too.
My son is 8, but he enjoyed it, he understood the message, loved the songs and his favourite bit were the monkeys. We left with a smile on our faces and chatted on the way home about what made us different and how we could celebrate and appreciate those differences.
Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is a lovely show which is ideal for pre-schoolers and young ones. It’s left us with a serious case of the warm and fuzzies.
Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is on at The Lowry from 19th-21st February this year. For more information or to book tickets, visit The Lowry website.
Note, we were given press tickets for review purposes. I have not been paid for this post.