Baa Moo Yellow Dog Flyer Image
Where are you when cows bleat like sheep, pigs have wings and a horse lives in an apple tree? In Ash’s colourful imaginary world.
Join Ash as he looks in holes, turns corners, and hops, skips and jumps over cracks. A world where things are not what they first seem and where you might even see a yellow dog.
Baa Moo Yellow Dog explored the playful imagination of a small boy who lived in a tower block who looked down on the world below his flat and tried to bring order to the unexpected and where difference could be a good thing.
Wrapped up in a continuous contemporary soundscape inspired by baroque music, Baa Moo Yellow Dog presented a fantastical world where the imagination ran riot and there were new friends around every corner.
Baa Moo Yellow Dog 2009 was a re-working of the 2004 production of the same title and was performed on this occasion in fully integrated British Sign Language and English. This play was the sixth and final play in this cycle presented in this format and toured nationally.
Find out more about BSL and English bilingual theatre
You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection.
Chris Elwell has been the Director of Half Moon Theatre on White Horse Road since 1997. He talks about Baa Moo Yellow Dog, a play for early years with a child protagonist who lived in a Tower Block. He describes why he chose this setting.
Chris Elwell has been the Director of Half Moon Theatre on White Horse Road since 1997. He talks about the impetus for and aesthetic of creating bilingual work in British Sign Language and English. Interviewed by Kavana Joyett.
Theatre designer, Alison Cartledge talks about illustrating story books to accompany the productions for young children, which Half Moon Theatre produced during the 2000s.
Alison Cartledge talks about Baa Moo Yellow Dog, a play for 2-5 year olds where some animals were not quite what they first seemed. Interviewed by Toni Tsaera.
“Anyone who has the pleasure of owning a two-year-old will understand the perils of entertaining such a being. So it was with trepidation that I entered Half Moon’s theatre for their 45-minute-long play about imaginary animals and brightly coloured props. I need not have worried. As it happens it’s the quietest and most enthralled I think I’ve ever seen my son. A room full of two to five-year-olds and no noise apart from the actors’ voices, the wonderfully composed music and the giggles of an entranced audience.
Baa Moo Yellow Dog is the story of a small lad named Ash whose imagination is allowed to run free as he makes friends with a cow who lives in a pond, a sheep who moos like a cow and a horse who can fly. This amazing play, designed for the youngest of audiences, is expertly written and acted, with the added bonus of integrated British Sign Language (BSL) which brings an educational and different perspective to the work.
The set is bright, cheerful and uncluttered, and even before the performance began the children were looking on and listening with interest as mysterious music played in the background. The two actors on stage – Daniel Broadhurst as Ash and Donna Mullings as his imaginary ‘play-friend’ Play – kept the audience on their toes, hopping, skipping and jumping through Ash’s imaginary world and meeting characters only a young mind could conjure up.
The character Play signs throughout with basic British sign language, which is surprisingly effective. By the end, even people in the audience who had no previous signing experience could confidently recognise a few words in BSL. The children’s favourite part (and mine too, actually) seemed to be the yellow dog emerging from a giant blue-spotted egg, as it meant Ash finally had a real friend to share his adventures with.
Talking to some of the parents after the show the one thing we were all most impressed with was the way in which the actors held our kids’ attention for almost a whole hour. For that reason and many others, you should definitely be booking up your tickets for Baa Moo Yellow Dog as soon as possible.”
Sophie Bryant, The Wharf
“Where are you when cows think they’re chickens, pigs can fly and a horse lives in an apple tree? Why, in the wonderfully bright and cheerful, yet slightly surreal, world of Ash’s colourful imagination! Ash is a young boy who lives alone with his mother in a block of flats and has no-one to play with, so he creates an imaginary friend with whom he has a series of adventures.
This delightful fantasy, created and directed by Chris Elwell, is an enchanting and engaging piece of theatre. It is a revisioning of an earlier piece created for children aged 2-5 and their families and carers. In this 45 minute show we are taken by Ash into his world with the support of his imaginary friend Play, performed by a deaf actor, who, as his playmate, becomes both mirror and shadow at times as well as commentator, using BSL signing. Together they explore the world around them, a world where things aren’t always what they seem and where fun can be had in the simplest friendship games, running, jumping, chasing each other and splashing water from a pond. Finally they find a special Yellow egg whose secret, once revealed, means that Ash won’t be alone any more!
Daniel Broadhurst’s Ash and Donna Mullings’ Play work well as a double act where her signing both echoes and complements the piece, and they are both engaging and assured. Highlights of their performance include their peek-a-boo games, the horse ride over the town, and the egg dance! The young children at the matinee I saw loved the comedy moments, but I wished that they had let the audience be more involved, as there were times when Ash addressed us directly but did not wait for, or use, the responses that he got.
Alison Cartledge’s set, with its vivid colours, is like the page of a pop-up book, where a series of subtle lighting changes add atmosphere and focus.
The final star of the show is undoubtedly Robert Lee’s brilliantly conceived and executed contemporary baroque soundscape, subtle and sensuous at times and at others leading the performers to new delights like the tunes of a hidden Pied Piper.
For those living in Tower Hamlets there is an outreach programme that includes a workshop – but everyone should just go see and share the experience with Ash, Play and a child of your own!”
What’s On Stage
Baa Moo Yellow Dog – Sound Clips
Music from Half Moon’s production Baa Moo Yellow Dog in 2004 and 2009.
Music from Half Moon’s production Baa Moo Yellow Dog in 2004 and 2009.
Music from Half Moon’s production Baa Moo Yellow Dog in 2004 and 2009.
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