It was Beatrix Potter who invented the ‘prequel’ story about how the Piggywig who pops up in the middle of Edward Lear’s three-stanza poem came to live in “the land where the bong tree grows” and give the Owl and Pussycat their wedding ring. Potter’s eight-chapterThe Tale of Little Pig Robinson also references Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

Although this KidzStuff Theatre for Children show, directed by Sherilee Kahui, is called The Owl and the Pussycat, more of the action is drawn fromThe Tale of Little Pig Robinson (picking it up at Chapter Two).

In 2014 The Guardian reported the most popular children’s poem was The Owl and The Pussycat (ahead of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Humpty Dumpty). The more familiar children are with Lear’s poem, at least, before they come to the play, the better. The Jumblies – from another Edward Lear poem – make an appearance too. The Tale of Little Pig Robinson, which playwrightRachel Henry has thankfully trimmed it right back, is a bigger ask.

Henry’s version is narrated by Pig as an old man. As played by Jake Brown, Pig is lightweight and timid. Perhaps it’s a conscious decision to play him as a child might but there’s something patronising in the way he stoops over and talks down to the kids in that careful ‘do you understand?’ way. I think an ebullient and venerable old porker would be more compelling.

Shadow puppetry is delightfully used. The Jumblies make for a fun image but are not really part of this story. The song of The Owl and the Pussycat is illustrated with shadow puppets (and on opening morning Puss ends up well away from the boat just when it says they’ve got married; hopefully that will be rectified). Blending live singing with recorded voices for the Owl and Pussycat’s ‘dialogue’ probably worked in rehearsal but an inadequate sound system at the Tararua Tramping Club hall renders their lines unintelligible. 

Nevertheless most of the kids in the audience leap at the chance to do ‘The Piggy Wiggy Shuffle’ and love shouting out ‘There’ and pointing when Pig asks where his hand-puppet Aunties – Porcus (Charlotte Thomas) and Dorcus (Georgia Latief) – are. Later such things as being the breeze in the trees gets them moving a bit then settling better, which serves its purpose (although I much prefer audience participation that is crucial to the story).

It’s when Pig is sent off to the harbour town to go shopping for the Aunties that he comes across Owl (Charlotte Thomas) singing a wonderfully sad song about how lonely she is; how she has to set off on her big adventure all alone because she’s been banished for singing sad songs. Pig suggests a ‘Happy Walking Song’ and we are invited to sing along but no-one can pick the words up that quickly; I’d recommend just getting us to join in the counting part. 

A dastardly Sailor (Georgia Latief) leads the trusting Pig up the gangplank onto a schooner, oddly-named ‘Pound of Candles’. Pig soon discovers the sailor is the Cook, planning to fatten him up for the Captain’s table. At first the ship’s cat (also Latief) is disinclined to help. She is embittered that the promise of riches and romance on the high seas has failed to eventuate. It’s the sound of Owl’s song that awakens her heart and her capacity for kindness.

And so we become more immersed in the titular tale, by way of a cardboard pea-green boat, with Henry’s script emulating the tone of Lear’s poem beautifully. It’s a wordy play and the actors need to relish the language to make it work for their young audience.

It turns out the Jumblies live in this island and their Jumbly Dance, which the kids love doing, helps to cover the year-and-a-day the Owl and the Pussycat spend away, before returning to get married.

Georgia Latief plays the Turkey who lives on the hill and will marry them, thanks to the Pig being willing to give them his ring for a shilling. Unfortunately the wedding scene does not climax the action, presumably because they are limited to just three actors. (Couldn’t the Turkey have been a rod puppet?)

The important thing is the kids enjoy themselves and there are production elements that may well inform their creative play during the holidays – not least the puppetry and the splendid animal masks (design uncredited). 

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