The Guardian, Thursday 6 June 2009
****

The Chinese flautist Guo Yue, whose name means Little Leap Forward, was eight when Mao Zedong declared the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Like many intellectuals, his school-teacher mother was declared a counter-revolutionary and sent to the country to be "re-educated" and dig mud out of the river. Inspired by the children's book of the same name, but suitable for all ages, Horse + Bamboo's show - a ravishing, wordless mix of mask work, puppetry, shadow play and music - tells Guo Yue's story. It captures all the intensity of being eight: the brightness of the colours, the vividness of sound, the swooping shifts between exhilaration and sudden fear.

The story is linear, but this fleeting hour is so textured that the overall effect is impressionistic. The cut-out style paper design is just one of many visual pleasures: Mao's marching Red Army is depicted by tiny puppets springing out of the kitchen drawers; the perspective is constantly shifting - one minute you feel as if you are looking down on red fish swimming up a river, the next you are watching a tiny puppet bird crossing the wide sky. The song bird, captured and caged, becomes a metaphor for Guo Yue himself, his lost mother and for the music career that eventually leads him leave China. The violence of the Cultural Revolution is never shirked.

The piece is full of grace and simple beauty.

Lyn Gardner

City Life Magazine, 29 May 2009
****

I've made no bones about the fact that I'm a huge fan of Horse and Bamboo Theatre.Its imaginative work in providing quality children's theatre has often made more of an impression on me than star names in large glizy productions. This world premiere, part of a creative partnership between Barefoot Books and the Exchange, sees Horse and Bamboo present its most challenging work to date.

Based on a book by Clare Farrow and Guo Yue, it tells Yue's real story of a small boy growing up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution.Now an internationally renowned flautist, in 1966 Yue and his best friend were ordinary boys going to school and flying kites when he captures and cages a little yellow bird in the hope it will accompany him on his flute.

But, as the Revolution enforces its rules, his mother is punished for reading banned books. He realises that the little bird is symbolic of freedom and it needs to fly before it can sing.Told simply like this the plot may seem a trifle trite but with its signature use of animation, puppetry, masks and music, Horse and Bamboo conjures up the emotions as well as this true story.Adapted for the stage and directed by Alison Duddle, the talented group of four actors, who are also puppeteers and musicians, bring to life an era within our own time in which childish innocence was brutalised.

My one quibble is this is recommended as suitable for children over the age of eight but it requires a degree of explanation because of one violent scene, which some may find isturbing.Nevertheless this life-affirming story provides a reminder of the dangers of political tyranny and is beautifully realised by the small but superb cast.
Natalie Anglesey

Whatsonstage.com, 29 May 2009
****

Children provide a rich source of information for repressive regimes. The little monkeys can be relied upon to tell tales on their parents and teachers. Perhaps Writer/ Director Alison Duddle had this in mind when she aimed Little Leap Forward at a young audience. Even so the play is sufficiently challenging and stylish to be of interest to all age ranges.
 
Set in China the play uses the family and friends of Little Leap Forward, an eight-year old boy, to illustrate the effect upon the wider community of Mao Zedong's cultural revolution. Throughout the play flight is used as a metaphor for freedom. Little Leap Forward befriends Blue, a female classmate and they bond over an interest in kites. The highly-individual kite designed by Blue prompts Leap's mother to reveal the artistic and sensual pleasures that have been repressed by the revolution. But this deviation from the norm exposes the family to risk.
 
Duddle utilises styles and techniques that are appropriate to the culture and period in which the play is set. The set design by Bob Frith is inspired by the workers revolution posters of the time. It gives us a house in stark black and white with splashes of bright primary colours. The set serves also a practical purpose providing a screen for filmed inserts and a platform for puppet displays.

The story is told without dialogue, but with evocative music from Loz Kaye and Guo Yui, and a series of puppets.Duddle uses two basic types of puppet; actors operate, by hand, table top puppets about a foot or so high. As well as  allowing rapid changes between scenes this gives an epic, wide-screen feel to the play taking us to see the children playing in the countryside. It also allows subtle visual comment. A classroom full of conformist pupils can be seen to be full of,  literally, puppets.
 
The cast (Nicky Fearn, Francis Merriman, Jonny Quick and Mark Whitaker) play 11 characters by using helmet masks to become life-size puppets. This gives rise to the challenge of how to convey emotion whilst deprived of the ability to use facial expressions. The skilled cast compensate by using their whole bodies to show the full range of emotions including gawky teenaged stance or shoulders rounded in defeat.

The blank faces of the puppets also illustrate the destruction of the individual that was achieved during the cultural revolution. Unfortunately they do have an adverse impact on the story as it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the characters apart .
 
Despite some difficulty in distinguishing between the characters, Little Leap Forward remains a thought-provoking and moving play that will appeal to all age groups.
 
Dave Cunningham