Places I Never Think About – Transit Productions / Omnibus Theatre, London

Places I Never Think About is a tender, funny, and richly crafted piece of queer storytelling, using music, folklore, and puppetry to bring Eastern European myths to life.

Places I Never Think About

There’s something deeply human about storytelling at its most essential. A circle of listeners, voices across generations weaving and embellishing old stories. I love it, so was very excited to see the production we’re reviewing today. Places I Never Think About, from queer multidisciplinary collective Transit Productions, understands the power of storytelling and puts it to excellent use. Using folklore from Hungary, Romania and Croatia, the hour-long piece fuses puppetry, music, and live storytelling to craft something playful and unexpectedly moving.

The conceit is simple but clever: we, the audience, are villagers being told tales by three grandmotherly figures. From there, the show spins off into three folktales that first unfold separately and then weave into one another, before concluding one by one. The result is a surprisingly cohesive whole that maintains the texture of each tale while highlighting shared themes: the pride of youth, love, the search for self. There’s a Shakespearean universality in the emotions and character flaws given form in forests, kingdoms, and underworlds.

Musically, the show is a treat. Amongst the collective are gifted musicians, and the polyphonic singing evokes something instantly communal. The puppetry and mask work are low-tech in the best sense, thoughtful and evocative. Perhaps most importantly, the queering of these tales is done with tenderness, never feeling like a gimmick or imposition.

The hour passes quickly, and by the final communal dance (an updated take on a traditional Hungarian táncház) it feels like we’ve all shared something. In a city not known for warmth*, Places I Never Think About offers exactly that.

*If we except this week’s sweltering heatwave, of course.

A Devised Piece that Holds Together Beautifully

Devised theatre can be a risky business. The danger is that it feels like a collection of loosely tied ideas, or a workshop given a platform before it’s quite ready. Not so here. Places I Never Think About is confident and thoroughly thought-through, the result of careful collaboration and a clear sense of purpose.

Though only 65 minutes long it packs in a huge amount, shifting from myth to music to humour to pathos without losing its footing. The dramaturgy is assured, and the overall shape of the piece is strikingly well-balanced. Each element – narration, character, design, sound – feels in tune with the others. That cohesion might be helped by the simple structure, but it takes skill as well to pull this off.

Much of that lies in the tone. There’s a playfulness throughout, but it’s never flippant. These are queer retellings, yes, but also loving restorations. An acknowledgement that traditional forms have always been reinterpreted, retold, reclaimed. And while some of the stories are dark (death, sorrow, rejection), there’s always care in the telling.

Transit Productions is a company I’ll be watching closely. Their mission, to uplift overlooked voices through joyful, cross-cultural theatre, feels not only timely but fully realised in this piece. Places I Never Think About is one to remember.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Places I Never Think About on at the Omnibus Theatre as part of 96 Festival 2025, until 2 July only. More info and tickets here.