The Court Theatre’s holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk is charming and inventive. Strong characterisation, deft wordplay and myriad visual gags combine to offer a fresh interpretation of a familiar story in which the grimmer portions of the narrative – impending starvation, followed by giant-induced carnage – are retooled to comic effect.

Dan Bain’s playful direction of Brendon Bennetts’ witty adaptation also features some clever manipulation of scale through the use of costume pieces, action figures and the animated backdrop, rendering the distinctions between the giant’s over-sized world and ours both believable and entertaining.

Zak Enayat gives a spirited performance as the foolish, cheeky Jack, and Amy Straker and Henri Nelis offer a delightful array of comic supporting characters, both living and inanimate.

The production adapts the set for the Court’s summer musical, Legally Blonde – an inevitable constraint that in this case is generally negotiated well. It makes excellent use of its moving LCD panels, and its rotating stage handily solves the perennial problem of how to stage travel sequences in a manner that reads well. The set’s bright pink colour palette is a little trickier to deal with and while I appreciate the way the set pieces and detailed costumes nod to this through the inclusion of pink splatters and blobs, pushing back against the ‘pinkocalypse’ is a bit of a losing battle (and not really this production’s fault at all).

This is a lively and well-staged production, yet the audience at this afternoon session is a little quiet and are hesitant to fully participate during the interactive moments. My grown-up companion and I wonder whether this is because the ‘rules of engagement’ aren’t consistently established. The house lights are fully down when Jack first enters and engages with the audience, although they come up a little later during another interaction. Mischevious Daisy the Cow (Henri Nelis, in uddered, spotted dungarees and white milkshed gumboots) begins as a silent character who delivers her mimed actions more to Jack than the audience, but later begins to moo and communicate with the audience more directly.

While the performances themselves are strong and consistent – Henri Nelis’s grumpy, bone-grinding giant and Amy Straker’s suspicious, bean-selling geezer are particular highlights – this earlier equivocation muddies the waters a little. It’s a pretty granular quibble, though, in what is overall a thoughtful and dynamic production.

I’ve previously been irritated by what sometimes seems to be an under-resourcing of some shows for young people, but this production does an awful lot with a little. It combines clear and resourceful direction, strong performances by three seasoned actors, a vibrant script, and some well-pitched costuming and design choices that exhibit a great eye (and ear) for detail, all of which results in a satisfying production that delivers to both old and young audiences. 

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