The Little Matchgirl at Buxton Opera House
Written by Joel Horwood and adapted with Emma Rice from stories by Hans Christian Andersen
Reviewed by John Waterhouse March 2018
I went along to Buxton Opera House with an open mind, expecting to see a fairly entertaining children's show and can only say it just shows how wrong you be sometimes. The Little Match Girl is a pure delight, encompassing action theatre, folk music, comedy, pathos, dance and a lot more. Yes, children will enjoy this spectacular journey through the stories of Hans Christian Andersen but this is unquestionably a show for adults. Dickensian settings and costumes blend with bang up-to-date satire, and folk music from the 16th and 17th centuries is interspersed with easy-listening songs from the 60’s and 70’s.