Peter and the Wolf. A children's puppetry entertainment written by Wayne Shepherd and actors, incorporating the music by Sergei Prokofiev. Ickle Pickle Productions, directed by Wayne Shepherd at Belconnen Community Theatre January 15 - 7pm, 16 - 2pm, 17 - 2pm, 20 - 2pm, 21 - 11am, 22 - 11am & 2pm, 23 - 2pm & 7pm, 24 - 2pm, 27 - 11am, 28 - 11am. Duration: 1 hour. Bookings: 6262 6977 or www.icklepickle.com.au
This is light entertainment of a rather odd kind, but enjoyed by an opening night audience ranging from toddlers to grandparents. The actors' ages range from 11 to adult, all with considerable amateur experience. In other words this is community theatre designed to be fun as much for those on stage as for the audience. Enthusiasm and warmth of relationship is the key to this kind of theatre, and Ickle Pickle manage very well.
Detailed criticism of individual performers is not appropriate here, but it is fair to say that I was surprised at the level of confidence and initiative the younger actors showed, as well as at the quality of voice projection. The Belconnen Theatre is not good acoustically, but I could hear every speaker very well from near the back row.
Shepherd structured the entertainment around a gently satirical version of a primary school assembly, where it was class 4M's turn to put on items for the school and parents. This involved audience participation - we had to sing a verse of Advance Australia Fair - and were taught the ra-ra chants of our Houses. The presentation was about the history of puppetry from around the world, with examples from Punch and Judy, shadow puppetry, Sesame Street figures as large hand puppets, and finally Peter and the Wolf with a narrator who became somewhat entangled in the action and the characters represented in various forms as costumed actors, string puppets with operators in blacks and unusual integrated actor/puppets.
Primary school level jokes are an integral part of the show, culminating in a restaurant scene in which the Sesame Street puppets find flies, bees, cockroaches and a number of other unmentionables in their soup, all explained away cheerfully by a French waiter. Written by Shepherd while teaching in China, I found this almost seriously absurdist. He claims it was very popular in China, probably I guess because the awful puns were a fun way to learn English. Just as this show overall is a fun way to learn about puppets.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Thursday, 15 January 2009
2009: Hating Alison Ashley by Richard Tulloch
Hating Alison Ashley by Richard Tulloch from the novel by Robin Klein. Child Players ACT at The Street Theatre Studio, January 15-17 2pm and 7.30pm. Bookings: 6247 1223 or www.thestreet.org.au
Newcomer to Year 9, Alison Ashley (Josie Dunham), comes from the other side of the tracks (the upper side, that is). But the play is not focussed on her, with a waspish divorced mother who "rests" during the day and runs a fashionable restaurant at night, and has absolutely no interest in her daughter's personal well-being.
Of central interest is Erika Yurken (Joanna Richards) "Yurk" to her siblings and "Yuk" to her classmates as she learns how jealousy turns to unjustifiable hate. Realisation dawns as her own waitress Mum (Robyn Page), long separated from Erika's errant father, and reliable truck driver, Lennie (Brian Daly) seek her approval of their engagement to be married.
Comedy, which you might not expect when dealing with such issues, demands style and timing. Director Brandon Girvan and his whole cast have understood the requirements very well. The result is a great team effort which even 38 degrees at the 2pm opening performance could not diminish. In a cast of 16 actors, no-one put a foot wrong.
Jo Howard, who designed and made the stage set and also did the media and photographic work for the production, deserves special mention because the visual aspect of the show is crucial to creating the atmosphere of the school, the domestic settings and the annual excursion to Camp Desolation somewhere around 1984 (when the novel was written), while still having the right feel for 15-year-olds today.
Dunham's and Richards' acting performances held the play together, as they should because the script is written this way, and because they complemented each other in creating the moments of light and shade the comedy needs. The three teachers - Jo Burns (Nigella Belmont, always in control), Katy Ryan (the fey but effective drama teacher Elsa Lattimore), Jeffrey Van de Zandt (Geoff Kennard who puts "the phys into physical education") were neatly satirical representations of people I have known, as were the student characters Barry (Daniel Mills), Margeart (Olivia English), Diana (Chelsea Needham), Crystal (Maddie Sloan), Oscar (Nicky Anyos) and Craig (Jarron Dodds).
Erika's almost D-Generation siblings Harley (Lachlan Ruffy), Valjoy (Katie Murphy) and Jedda (Tayla Page), so well parented by Mum and Lennie, top off the comedy and make this an original and enjoyable production for teenagers and even oldagers like me.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
Newcomer to Year 9, Alison Ashley (Josie Dunham), comes from the other side of the tracks (the upper side, that is). But the play is not focussed on her, with a waspish divorced mother who "rests" during the day and runs a fashionable restaurant at night, and has absolutely no interest in her daughter's personal well-being.
Of central interest is Erika Yurken (Joanna Richards) "Yurk" to her siblings and "Yuk" to her classmates as she learns how jealousy turns to unjustifiable hate. Realisation dawns as her own waitress Mum (Robyn Page), long separated from Erika's errant father, and reliable truck driver, Lennie (Brian Daly) seek her approval of their engagement to be married.
Comedy, which you might not expect when dealing with such issues, demands style and timing. Director Brandon Girvan and his whole cast have understood the requirements very well. The result is a great team effort which even 38 degrees at the 2pm opening performance could not diminish. In a cast of 16 actors, no-one put a foot wrong.
Jo Howard, who designed and made the stage set and also did the media and photographic work for the production, deserves special mention because the visual aspect of the show is crucial to creating the atmosphere of the school, the domestic settings and the annual excursion to Camp Desolation somewhere around 1984 (when the novel was written), while still having the right feel for 15-year-olds today.
Dunham's and Richards' acting performances held the play together, as they should because the script is written this way, and because they complemented each other in creating the moments of light and shade the comedy needs. The three teachers - Jo Burns (Nigella Belmont, always in control), Katy Ryan (the fey but effective drama teacher Elsa Lattimore), Jeffrey Van de Zandt (Geoff Kennard who puts "the phys into physical education") were neatly satirical representations of people I have known, as were the student characters Barry (Daniel Mills), Margeart (Olivia English), Diana (Chelsea Needham), Crystal (Maddie Sloan), Oscar (Nicky Anyos) and Craig (Jarron Dodds).
Erika's almost D-Generation siblings Harley (Lachlan Ruffy), Valjoy (Katie Murphy) and Jedda (Tayla Page), so well parented by Mum and Lennie, top off the comedy and make this an original and enjoyable production for teenagers and even oldagers like me.
©Frank McKone, Canberra
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