Directed and produced by Sarah Somerville and Phineas Phrog Productions Limited, Sleeping Beauty features three extremely hard working actors, who between them, gallantly and with great dedication and energy, portray the key characters from the fairy-tale, plus those added by this adaptation.

Greg Cooper is at home in this genre, playing the servant Eugene, with dead-pan ease one minute, then milking the opportunity to bring out his Queen fairy at the baby princess’ christening, the next.

Cameron Douglas is also well cast, and gives a very enjoyable performance as the King in particular. His over-the-top, drawn out adoration of his dear baby princess was very nice.

Sally Somerville was at her best portraying the various fairies bestowing gifts on the newborn princess. However, given she had so many characters to play, she could do well to centre her voice more, drawing on a deeper register, to give some vocal variety. Her singing voice, like many of the speaking voices she chose for her characters, was high-pitched and unsupported at times.

With any kid’s show, getting the delivery of the humour just right, in terms of what appeals to kids and what appeals to parents, is a tricky thing. Sleeping Beauty didn’t quite hit the mark, with set ups and punch lines occasionally clichéd, or drawn out and exaggerated beyond their best-delivered-by-date. The kids around me, the boys in particular, seemed bored and put off by some of the more obvious humour. However, when a ‘less is more’ approach to joke telling was scripted, such as the King’s aside about the "crown jewels", it got a deserving chuckle.

One aspect of the writing that was more successful was Somerville’s frequent use of audience interaction, which serves to increase the young viewer’s interest and involvement with the plot. We become the christening party for example, and later of course, the forest that had grown over the palace.

However, to further connect her young audience to the story, Somerville’s script needed to remain more true to the core emotions of the original tale. For example, when the King pleads for help from the last fairy to lift or soften the curse, the response of "I’ll give it a whirl" doesn’t convey the fact that this is the princess’s only hope of survival.

The script also added gimmicks, such as a time machine, a wooden super-hero and a red phone, but in amongst it all, didn’t always spell out for the kids, the basic plot points. Scenes lacked cohesion and appeared disjointed, as characters suddenly became narrators, to explain where we were and why, then characters again.

The overall lack of investment in technical support, such as dynamic lighting design and good sound effects, lets this production down. Time after time, such as the entrance of the big bad fairy, a lighting change was needed as it would’ve gone a long way to break up the long periods of dialogue delivered on a wide stage lit by a flat general wash of white light.

The backing tracks sounded tinny and were hard on the ear at times, but the committed and happy performances of the actors made for a colourful, upbeat delivery.

Using a few sound effects on obvious cues such as "sound the trumpets", rather than the actors miming and providing a muffled attempt at a trio of horns, once again, could’ve broken up the monotony of the entire production resting on the abilities of this small, over-worked cast.

While there were certainly highlights throughout the hour, my 3-year daughter’s (and my) interest waned. Even with all the energy and happiness in the world, these three actors, because they were let down by a flawed script, and on such a large stage, with little to no dynamic technical creativity, and only a few brightly painted permanent one dimensional props to move around, were not enough to sustain our interest for so long.

However, we both loved the unexpected (and sort of unexplained) appearance of the dragon. He was a cheerful bloke with a very interesting face and some great lines.

I was also very impressed that Auckland kids were able to enjoy such a cheap show: Sleeping Beauty had a refreshingly low-ticket price. Often the entry fee for live theatre is too high for most families to contemplate going to a live performance rather than a movie.  

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