We were treated to the evening show Tuesday to see The 78-Storey Treehouse, a play by Richard Tulloch, adapted from the book by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, playing at Adelaide Festival Centre.

What a HOOT.

With a keen 8 and 11 year old in tow (who are fans of the book series), it’s fair to say we had been highly anticipating the great show that was delivered. This book series has sold over three million copies in Australia. Three million – that’s huge! The theatre was packed, and it’s now pretty easy to see why this show is SOLD OUT!

We already knew that we loved the characters for their humour, silliness and adventures and the show certainly carried on the Treehouse reputation for funny, tumultuous times. Feeling like we already knew Andy, Terry & Jill did perhaps seem key. It’s hard to say how differently the show might be digested if you don’t have some back ground knowledge, but I am pretty sure it would still be highly entertaining and provide many laughs for the kids (and instantly get you hooked on the books?)

Terry & Andy are best friends who have just added another 13 storeys to their tree house home. This includes the addition of Andyland (we found particularly funny), a giant egg, a high security chip storage facility and a scribbletorium among other things. That’s not all – the story line is around a Hollywood producer ‘Mr Bigshot’ coming to make a movie of said epic treehouse. Sometimes things don’t always go to plan, and our quirky friends are challenged along the way by jealousy when Andy doesn’t hit it off with Mr Bigshot and further derailed by a couple of ‘Mooovie Idea Stealing Spy Cows’.

Our highlights in humour were simply too many to list, but the kids and I felt we MUST mention ‘Turbo Tortoise’, a helpful tortoise who is said to be faster than a farrari driving a bullet (so….pretty fast). Lucky Jill can speak turtalk!!!! We also LOVED the intergalactic space battle, and it seemed obvious that most kids thought the same.

As an adult, the biggest take away for me was watching the joy on the kids faces as life and further silliness was breathed in to their favourite books. The four main actors really were fantastic and I thought Samuel Welsh (playing Andy) was a clear standout.

For the kids, the one hour show went quickly. They smiled and chuckled the entire 60 minutes away and can not wait for the release of the next book, 104-Storey Treehouse – and I am thinking it is due mid July….?

I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend for 7-12 year olds (give or take) and we hope they bring another stage show to Adelaide soon.

The Andy Griffiths Treehouse books are available online from Dymocks
www.dymocks.com.au

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