Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants: Five-star review as children enjoy combination of music and storytelling

Since being formed in 2005 to take up residency at Sheffield’s Crucible Studio Theatre, Ensemble 360 (who take their name from the Crucible’s wonderful in-the-round space) have endeavoured to take classical music to new audiences.

The success of this ambition was highlighted last weekend as hundreds of children aged between three and seven joined with parents and grandparents to both watch and participate in their concert based on a musical retelling of the book Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants.

The family concert took place as part of a special day of events organised in the city by the Music in the Round charity last Saturday, while on the two preceding days 3,000 local schoolchildren had also been treated to their own sell-out performances of Sir Scallywag.

The story is a simple and enticing one for young people – a giant has stolen the golden underpants of a king named Colin and it is up to a six-year-knight called Sir Scallywag and his horse Doofus to get them back.

The concert featured storytelling and projected illustrations from the best-selling children’s book by Giles Andreae and Korky Paul, with musician Polly Ives doing a tremendous job of leading audience participation in singing and dancing over the course of the witty and inventive hour-long show.

Ives and the musicians did a wonderful job of introducing the young audience to enjoyment of the theatre, live music and engaging storytelling.

Proof of their success came at the end of the show from both the queues at the book-selling stall, as well as the lines of excited children coming up to meet the musicians who had gathered in the foyer with their instruments.

As for my own seven and five-year-old who were enchanted by the show, one rated it ‘ten thumbs up’ and the other gave it ‘1,000 out of 10’. Both were keen to have the Sir Scallywag story – one we hadn’t come across as a family before – read to them repeatedly that night too. It was a morning out that left a lasting positive impression and us all keen to book in more trips to the theatre.

Ensemble 360 and Polly Ives will next perform Sir Scallywag at The Junction in Goole on January 21. Visit https://musicintheround.co.uk/ for tickets.