This beautiful production of Seasons is animatedly exploring the seasonal pathway from Winter to Spring, Summer and Autumn, but there is so much more woven into its name with the creative journey this Capital E production has also taken.

Originally created by the wonderful artistic team of Peter Wilson, Laughton and Jenny Pattrick, and Debz Ruffell, Seasons was first performed in 2000 and subsequently 2003, 2009 and 2013.

This year’s production tour honours the memory, in particular, of the incredible theatrical legacy left by Peter Wilson and Laughton Pattrick. It is also an artistic seasonal circle of sorts for director Jacqueline Coats who performed in the cast of the first production, a show which again delighted her with her toddler in 2013 – and she is now directing this absolutely stunning and updated iteration in 2021.  

The extremely talented cast of 2021 Seasons – Mia Alonso-Green, Dominic Flanagan and Flora Dryburgh – are also at the newly budding stage of their careers, having recently graduated from Te Auaha Musical Theatre and Victoria University.  

Seasons is a joyous and informative story about three cousins who can’t wait to see each other again after a playful holiday together. Through wonderful songs, games, exquisite puppeteering, investigation through nature, science, maths and imaginary play, they try to figure out how to calculate the length of the seemingly forever year ahead until they can next meet up again.

While previous productions (I also saw and reviewed the 2013 production), incorporated some Te Reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), this production has been updated to include broader audience accessibility and enjoyment with a much more integrated script using our New Zealand official languages of Te Reo Māori, NZSL and English. Again the theatre world shows its adaptability and ability to embrace important societal change and evolution and puts that representative dialogue at the forefront of production choices.

The set, props and costuming design by Tony De Goldi (with assistance from Anne de Geus) is vibrant and colourful, enhanced by beautifully effective storytelling projection and lighting by Jason Longstaff (with contributions also by JJ Janse).

Alongside director Jacqueline and musical director Fiona McCabe, the wonderful actors are fortunate to have a team of experts in Te Reo Māori, NZSL and Puppeteering, and a skilled technical operator (Mattias Oloffson), who are all part of bringing this show to the extremely tightly woven finished product we see today.

Mia, Dom and Flora deliver performances that are playful and expertly timed. Their singing is just beautiful, individually and together with perfect harmonising. Added to their extensive skill set needed for this play, is the inclusion of live instrumental playing, sometimes as the main accompaniment or over the pre-recorded soundscape. Everything from ukelele of varying pitch ranges, banjo, glockenspiel, melodica, flower pots and piano accordian are played with ease.

The connection and camaraderie between the actors is obvious and the bird and insect vocals needed for communication are such fun which especially draws in the young audience who are obviously enraptured by what is transforming in front of them, producing many audible giggles and amazed reactions.

Interestingly, in today’s climate of instilling kind words and respectful interactions, I find myself reflecting on the traditional slapstick and ‘na na na na na na’ humour of children’s and comedy theatre and where this stands on this current and important platform. When characters, either human or animal, ‘get one over’ another character, how could this be reacted to in a positive vein with a kinder focus and still be playful?  

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