Shockheaded Peter opens the book on primal fear, stares it in the face and rubbing its hands with glee, demonstrates the singular fate of naughty boys and girls. Based on the stories of Heinrich Hoffman, we are drawn into the world of bogeymen, monsters and angry adults, putting paid to the cliché of comfort: 'the greatest fear is fear itself.' Here, the terror is very real and children that suck their thumbs, play with matches or fidget should quickly mend their ways or meet a sorry end. Cultural Industry's show is a triumph of theatre puppetry, mime, music and song over modern technology and effects. It's simple set evokes a pop-up picture book with lots of opening doors and windows, secret entrances and levels. A child's world, where the imagination is given cues to do its worst and subsequently spills over into nightmare. The narrative (a freakish baby is delivered to a childless couple who then reject it) is interspersed with tales of children who do not do as they're told. The scariest consequence of their misbehaviour is the Scissorman, a tip-toeing, grimacing silhouette who creeps up to take revenge with a 'snip, snip.' 
     The performances are lush, melodramatic, terrifying and hilarious - in a word, brilliant. The MC (Julian Bleach) takes us through the show with high camp and great relish. The musicians, David Thomas and the 'two pale boys' Andy Diagram and Keith Moline, create a highly expressive and mysterious soundscape, with Thomas' falsetto voice and dead eyes making the blood run cold. Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermot, the co-directors, have guided the company (who collectively devised the piece) not only to horrify but to laugh, especially at themselves. One of the show's greatest achievements is that it's un-precious, which is why the audience relates to it so readily. 
     Set firmly in the Victorian world of theatrical illusion, shadows and circus freak-shows Shockheaded Peter is always aware that it is a piece of theatre, and the fourth wall is constantly broken. This enables the performers to talk directly to us, and we are reminded by the MC, with a raised eyebrow and a slow smile, that we never know what's under our floorboards. 
     In the manner of 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', this piece has become something of a cult, with members of the audience back-combing their hair so that, they too, could be 'shockheaded.' As with all cults there is a loyal following and the feeling that one is part of an exclusive, privileged group all sharing a common understanding. And that is the nub of this show's success: we do indeed empathise with each other in the auditorium and with the players, as we were all children once. At times naughty, always imagining and with our own little fears of things that go bump in the night.
Loma-Ann Bonner