Review: THE HOUSE WITH CHICKEN LEGS, Royal Festival Hall

Any new show from Les Enfants Terribles arrives with high expectations. Their hugely imaginative approach to theatre has seen them take wellknown children's tales and turn them into immersive promenade adventures like the deliciously gruesome (and gruesomely delicious) Dinner With The Twits and 2015’s twisted fantasy Alice Underground which is being revived next year.

The House With Chicken Legs continues on the same path, albeit with its own quirks. Instead of dark stories from classical authors Roald Dahl or Lewis Carroll, the show leans on Sophie Anderson’s more optimistic YA book to create a standalone slice of gig theatre. The story revolves around the orphaned Marinka who lives with her grandmother Baba, a Yaga who helps the dead pass over into the afterlife. As such, the pair live a peripatetic life transported around by the eponymous house. Marinka yearns for a life beyond this duty and a chance meeting with local boy Ben offers an escape.

Even without the complex theatrical engineering required to bring an immersive show to life, this show has plenty of moving parts not least a huge set, mesmerising projections, musical numbers, well-crafted puppets of different sizes (including a set of massive chicken legs) and a skilled cast of six actor-musicians all of whom take on multiple roles with the exception of lead actor Eve de Leon Allen in the central role.

What could have been a punchy sibling to the stage version of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean At The End Of The Lane suffers from a mix of technical issues, a clunky script and lax directing. Both works share DNA in terms of storyline, stage design and target audience but The House WIth Chicken Legs is a baggier effort broken up by some sweet but ineffectual songs, weighed down with subplots and not helped by technical audio issues. 

The casting and directing are also variable. As Nina, Elouise Warboys outdoes de Leon Allen in both the singing and acting departments and shines like a diamond when given the chance. In her main second half role, Stephanie Levi-John in a deep New Orleans-inspired accent at a rate faster than a chicken running for its life; this is not an entirely comprehensible combination. 

Even if you take away Les Enfants Terribles' storied past and their current woes (the planned revival of Alice Underground is about a year late), the rich source material and evocative design belie a show that could have been so much more.

The House With Chicken Legs continues at Royal Festival Hall until 30 December.

Photo credit: Rah Petherbridge

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