Last year's Sprint festival at Camden People's Theatre threw up the intriguing Black Tonic, which took place in the bedrooms and corridors of a West End hotel. This year's festival takes you off the well-beaten theatrical track, too, with Little Wonder's journey on foot and by narrow boat along the Regent's Canal. It's a delightful 90 minutes that would be even more memorable if it could make up its mind if it wants to be a glorified guided tour or a full-blown piece of theatre. Currently, it falls somewhere between the two.
If that doesn't bother you too much, then there is plenty to charm in a stroll along this backwater in the heart of the city that takes in the area's industrial past and regenerated future, the latter in the form of a saleswoman selling canal-side living in converted gasometers. There are even scones and jam and elderflower cordial along the way, and if ghosts don't quite walk, they certainly lurk, in the form of the 19th lock-keeper and his lover who dredges the canal for a lost silver bracelet.
The cast are engaging, and the singing and music-making are charming and poignant, particularly when they conjure the factory workers whose names are not in the history books. But the show relies too heavily on the distinctive atmosphere of the canal, when what would really raise the game would be greater development of the narrative and characterisation. At the moment, there is just not enough at stake emotionally, and the snippets of history and penny licks cannot hide the lack of substance. An enjoyable novelty, but more work is required to make this journey with a real destination.
