Pinocchio: overwhelming innocence, song and dance, and a fabulous fish
17 Nov 2019

by Drew Rowsome - Production photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

Scrooges and Grinches will hate The Adventures of Pinocchio. I, with all the Scrooge/Grinch attributes I acquire during the Christmas season, loved it. No amount of cynicism and no attempts to parse for subtext, were able to counteract the overwhelming innocence and joyful song and dance. And that is quite a Christmas gift.

Being a production from Young People's Theatre, I was aware that The Adventures of Pinocchio is not aimed at me as a demographic. That it is so effective and entertaining was a delight. The basic storyline is familiar from either the dark original tale or the slightly less dark Disney version. This incarnation skips over Pinocchio's quest to become "a real boy" and instead focusses on the consequences of choices. Fortunately, only superficially. The journey to Pinocchio's redemption is an rambunctious romp through Carlo Collodi's ambiguous fairy tale.

Director Sheila McCarthy and the Young People's Theatre creative team come up with solutions to a surplus of plot and locations with ingenuity and imagination. We do see Pinocchio's nose grow when he lies, we do travel to Terra dei Ragazzi, and a chunk of wood is transformed, before our very eyes, into a boy. And we get to see how the effects are created, share the secret. By the time the giant fish with the glowing eyes appears, the effect is to wonder at the power of suspending disbelief. It is a fabulous fish.

Whether that magical theatrical quality will translate to children raised on a steady diet of flashy special effects and CGI, is not for me to speculate. But the ones peppering the audience seemed rapt, and gasped in all the right places. More importantly, so did I. If the songs by Neil Bartram are not as earwormy as the Sherman brothers - I left singing "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which one of The Adventures of Pinnochio's numbers somewhat resembles - each number was sold to the rafters by the cast.

Malindi Ayienga's Blue Fairy (though Pinocchio always refers to her as the "Blue Lady") is the mistress of ceremonies with a big voice and a very versatile gown that lights up and transforms into props and even a set. She materializes whenever the rascally puppet needs advice or a reprimand, while also dispensing considerable exposition. Turns out that a diva fairy is preferable to a good fairy, though it would have been nice to let Ayienga's pipes stretch a bit. Connor Lucas as Pinocchio never stops stretching. He affects a constant state of wonder all while singing, dancing acrobatically, tap dancing and even playing the violin. Aside from the costuming, this is not a wooden performance.

Shawn Wright is a warm and big-voiced Geppetto with PTSD from the sudden death of his wife. The book by Brian Hill contains a plethora of clever word gags but Wright manages to sell, "What was I thinking sending a puppet out on his own? And he's not even a day old," to get a laugh but also empathy. Lithe and wide-eyed Noah Beemer as bad boy/role model Lampwyck, comes the closest to providing a subtext as his moves and bratty demeanour lure Pinocchio, understandably, into a bromance with barnyard consequences.

As always the villains get to have the most fun. Susan Henley as the overseer of Terra dei Ragazzi and Jacob MacInnis as the puppet master, are more campy comic than menacing, but they do gleefully chew the scenery. And then dance on it. Arinea Hermans and Joel Cumber as the con artists Cat and Fox are a homage to Verdon and Fosse with a lot of struts, thrusts, gloves and winks. The faint frisson of seductive larceny is very welcome. Most of the cast does double or triple duty as townspeople, lost boys and fish appendages, but like Lucas, they sing and dance without pause or a pause in their smiles.

The Adventures of Pinocchio clocks in at a brisk 75 minutes which makes it very kid-friendly, there just is not enough time to fidget. While I suspect I would have enjoyed the show even more with a tyke in tow - wonder is contagious - my inner child was quite entertained. And my inner Scrooge and Grinch got a bit of a pre-Christmas respite.