Little Day Out. Justine Clarke and her three-piece band at Canberra Theatre, October 6, 2011.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
As
a theatre experience for littlies on an imaginary day out – when they
are actually on a real littlies’ day out to the theatre – Justine
Clarke’s show is not to be missed. But you will have to try to squeeze
your way in to the Sydney Opera House on Saturday October 8. The
original Canberra tour publicity mentioned only the 10am show that I saw
today, but this was followed by a 12 noon performance as well, so I can
only assume that bookings for Saturday will be overflowing.
And
so they should be. Justine (I’m sure I can use first names like all
the ABC Playschool viewers do) is not just multi-talented but speaks
personally to every child in the audience, fully justifying her claim
“If you imagine there’s one child sitting on the floor watching, and you
might actually get that child up on her feet, spark her imagination,
that’s really everything you want to do as an actor. You want to tell a
story and for that to ignite something.”
She certainly
ignited a toddler’s mosh pit in the Canberra Theatre and absolutely
nobody cried despite the crush. Good training for when they become
teenagers. Adulation training – but without the negative overtones they
will have to learn to watch for in later years.
Acculturation
training is another way of looking at this show, and others like it.
Over the years I’ve seen a few. They are not all so alike when I look
back.
The Playschool tradition, stretching at least
from Justine Clarke back to Monica Trapaga clearly stands out because
these performers are experienced actors and musicians who are expert at
communicating, through the tv screen and on stage.
Shows not in this league that I recall are the Gary Ginivan style in Pooh
(2000) when I heard a parent explain to her 3-year-old after the show,
"A movie's on a big screen. This was a play." It was hard to tell the
difference. Much the same was true of the Dora the Explorer Live! show Dora’s Pirate Adventure
(2008) where the whole performance was in lock-step with a pre-recorded
sound track and everything from eye-flashing to emotional expression
was pure formula. Even Humphrey B Bear, which perhaps ironically began
Justine’s career when she appeared as a littlie in an Arnott’s biscuit
advertisement, never matched Playschool for personality and quality
contact with children.
Learning to appreciate good
theatre is one aspect of acculturation which I think children can never
get enough of. And I could never complain about the wide range of
musical styles, as well as the basics of singing, rhythm and dancing in
Justine’s work. But there are aspects of the content of the songs which
had me thinking.
Almost everything in the show is
colonial white and British. Although it is secular, as it should be to
maintain independence from religious affiliation, one would think that
Australia is absolutely monocultural except for one feature: the music,
which varied from jazz, reggae, country and western, and even Aussie
70’s to a smidgeon of Beatles in the pre-show intro. This was
reinforced when under the sea Justine found a yellow submarine.
Otherwise
the only non-British bit was in the Gum Tree Family song, where we find
in and around the tree a kookaburra, a koala, a platypus and a
kangaroo. But soon after we are back hopping with bunnies as if we
don’t have an Australian hopping mouse – or a bilby. Even the sun is
merely ‘yellow’ shining mildly through – on the big screen – English
green oak leaves (though I could be mistaken – perhaps they were
Canadian maple). And, despite the range of people in the audience,
there was nothing to discover on this Little Day Out about all
the different coloured people who live in Australia, or the people who
live in dry red country and have never built a sandcastle at the seaside
or even seen the sea.
So, educationally speaking, I
would dearly love to see Justine’s wonderful theatrical skills turned
more towards our children’s lives in this country. Even Dora the
Explorer teaches American children the Spanish they will need when
Latinos outnumber Europeans in many areas, though I’m sure Justine could
do similar teaching much more subtly than Dora. Let’s take our
littlies on an imaginary day out in a more Australian land. After all,
how British are the Teletubbies, and how American is Sesame Street?
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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