Last Updated on 9 December 2024 by Colette
This post features gifted experiences
Tales of the Toymender – Thursday 5th to Tuesday 24th December 2024
Oldham Theatre Workshop are back this festive season with a new magical family musical at the super intimate Oldham Library Performance Space.
If you haven’t visited the Oldham Library Performance Space yet, you’re in for a treat. This cosy little theatre nestled at the back of Oldham Library, features comfy benches and unassigned seating so you can sit where you like. With an intimate stage setup, you’re always going to get a good view allowing you to be completely absorbed in the performance.
Watching the Oldham Theatre Workshop Christmas performance has become one of our favourite Christmas traditions and never fails to help us feel that festive magic.
From the team who brought you The Night The Frost Fell and The Wrong Reindeer is a brand new production: “Tales of the Toymender”
“Legend has it that on the night of midwinter, all the toys across the land come to life and play out wonderful adventures. . . . . . but what about the ones that are broken?
Tales of the Toymender is set in the fictional town of Gloaming. Residents of Gloaming celebrate mid-winter – when the sun disappears from the sky – with a procession to the Gloaming Stone where children age 10 and over, leave their most favourite toys – it is believed that the toys will have the most fantastic of adventures fighting Umbra the Shadow Monster as they help to bring the sun back to Gloaming and, once the sun is back in the sky, everyone celebrates with an enormous feast.
However, this year not all goes to plan . . .
Pippa and Scout are the best of friends and this year, having recently turned ten, they will be leaving their favourite toys at the Gloaming Stone for the first time however they are both nervous about this, unsure that they want to leave their toys, unsure that their toys are ready for the adventure and that they may not cope. Their worries are heightened when Greda, owner of the town’s toy shop, tries to convince them that their old, well-loved toys are too tired and broken to withstand the adventures and that it would be much better for them to buy a new toy to send . . . of course it’s clear to us as the audience that she just wants to line her own pockets!
As the children wrestle with the decision of whether to leave their toys at the Gloaming Stone or not – they meet Waldon, Chairman of the Gloam Appreciation Society who helps them to understand more about the legend surrounding the mid-winter celebration and to learn more about the Gloams (tiny little gnome-like people).
The also meet the Toymender, a shy and quiet resident of Gloaming who has a different job for every day of the week (house clearances, pallbearer, park cleaner and something to do with sorting out people’s inheritance which was a particularly funny bit of his story) but the most important job that the Toymender does, is to spend his nights fixing, repairing and mending broken toys. The Toymender chats easily to his toys but finds conversation with humans more challenging.
Pippa and Scout befriend the Toymender who, whilst uncomfortable at first, shares his stories with them and, when things go badly wrong with the mid-winter festival, is there to help save the day.
Farhaan Shah, who plays the Toymender, had us in stitches with his mime, physical comedy and his brilliant noises and sound effects (particularly when he got stuck in the lift). He was thoroughly entertaining. Farhaan also played the violin beautifully – and I don’t even really like the violin as a rule!
We were thrilled to see Jordan Reece and Sophie Ellicott return to the OTW this year after having loved them both in The Wrong Reindeer. Jordan plays both Waldon (the absolutely crackers chairman of the Gloam Appreciation Society) and Pippa’s Dad who is grieving the death of his father and is really not feeling the mid-winter celebrations this year. Sophie plays Tilma and Pippa’s Mum – Amy found it particularly amusing when Tilma and Waldon had to dash off “even though it would really lovely to see your Mum and Dad Pippa” because it would obviously be impossible for the characters to be on stage at the same time!
If you’re been to the Oldham Library Theatre before for the OTW Christmas performance, you will notice this year that the set feels much bigger than usual – they have used every inch of space (including the use of steps to give another level to the set) and there are six actors this year ably playing multiple characters each. I must admit Amy and I missed the youth theatre performers this year though!
I found Tales of the Toymender a little slow to start and I found the story hard to warm to initially however, the music is, as always, absolutely beautiful and once I’d relaxed into it, the story is deliciously bonkers with plenty of laugh out loud silliness as well as some more serious moments. Tales of the Toymender is not Christmassy at all but rather a celebration of mid winter and the sun, the passage of time, the power of friendship and value of fixing and mending what is broken rather than tossing it aside and replacing it.
You can book tickets for Tales of the Toymender online now priced at £8 per person which is incredible value!
You can read our previous OTW reviews here:
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