What does the rat race have to do with family life, especially if you’re a single parent caught between paying the bills and spending time with your child? It’s a theme explored in this three-hander, a hybrid of circus and storytelling, which features a hard-pressed mother, her daughter who is reluctant to go to sleep at night and the daughter’s invisible friend, Three, who takes her on night-time adventures into the realm of the imagination.
This is a show that understands there is nothing nicer for a family than snuggling down under a duvet on cushions together to listen to a bedtime story. Audiences can do just that in this gentle, sometimes beguiling show by Upswing Aerial. Bedtime Stories celebrates the pleasures of dreaming and transforms the space into a giant bedroom that is shared by performers and audience alike.
It is a delightful piece that with dramaturgical help and tighter writing would be stronger still. As it is, the dreamily immersive nature of Bedtime Stories disguises some of its deficiencies. And circus is also used in the narrative to good effect, as the little girl and her imaginary friend create their own story as a substitute for the one that the mother never finishes.
At its heart, this show is a reminder that bedtime should be a pleasure, and that you can escape from stress through the power of dreaming. But only if, as a parent, you change your priorities and learn to let things go.
• At Pontio, Bangor, Wales, 18-19 June. Box office: 01248-382828. Then touring until 4 September.
