‘Mr Freezy’, a Melbourne’s Arena Theatre Company production in association with ‘Men Of Steel’, is madcap, imaginative theatre for the younger age group, and is well timed as we approach the school holiday period.

The play is set in a 1950’s style ice-cream van (great design by Jonathon Oxlade) with the three energetic performers, Phil McInnes, Tamara Rewse and Sam Routledge, creating an entertaining set of characters from different kitchen objects and foods.

The main character is Scoopy, yes an old fashioned ice-cream scoop, who is joined by some colourful characters. They include Scrappy, a lolly scoop, Prong, a dishrag preacher, an evil hot dog machine, a crazy chip-maker, and the title character, Mr Frenzy, a flashing neon sign.

The script, group devised by Chris Kohn (also the director), Tamara Rewse and Sam Routledge, keeps the young audience involved with plenty of tension; Prong kidnaps Scoopy’s mother, and the nasty hot dog machine wants to turn the ice-cream van into a food court for hot food.

With ‘Mr Freezy’, there are no deep meanings, messages or parables. One suspects that kids get enough of these kinds of shows already! This show is about having fun and letting go.

Kitchens will never look the same again to young eyes! At the end of the show, it was great to see kids, walking down to the stage area (in a state of unbridled chaos), and checking out what was real and what was illusion, especially in regards to the tubs of gelato!

A case of personification gone wild, ‘Mr Freezy, part of the Sydney Theatre Company’s Education program, plays the Wharf 2 theatre until July 11, 2010