Written by Jess Sayer, one of New Zealand’s grittiest adult playwrights, and Darlene Mohekey, the creative and musical genius The Blue Baths, Dexter’s Amazing African Adventure follows Dexter’s journey (a year after his deep sea discovery) to save the last African Black Horn Rhinoceros. It’s a simple premise with little conflict, but Sayer and Mohekey extrapolate on it to provide a thoroughly entertaining show with genuine heart these school holidays.

From Lady Gaga and The Backstreet Boys to The Clash and John Lennon, the show is full of musical numbers with adapted lyrics, an extension of the pun-laden script, providing comedic value for both children and adults. Dan Williams’ set is simple, yet effective, and as director Sayer uses the space, both onstage and off, to create the necessary sense of chaos in the cartoonesque moments of the show. [More] 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Riding the wave of success from last year’s holiday extravaganza, Dexter’s Deep Sea Discovery, writer/directors Jess Sayer and Darlene Mohekey’s titular hero returns this winter for a whole new exciting and hilarious adventure.  While education and awareness-building are implicit, the real order of the day is madcap entertainment, utilising all the classic panto traditions of music, dance, comedy, melodrama and audience participation. 

Amanda Tito’s Dexter, still eight, is at once naïve, inquisitive, logical, vulnerable, compassionate and brave.  Transported ‘by the power of pantomime!’ to the scorching plains of Africa, he finds himself on an intrepid mission to save the last surviving member of a particular sub-species of Black Rhinoceros.  Along the way he encounters a menagerie of animals both friendly and sinister, plus not one but two despicable villains in sore need of some correctional guidance. 

The remaining cast covers between two and several roles each.  Bryony Skillington’s audaciously larger-than-life personae include Dexter’s big sister Britney (a Kiwi Vicki Pollard), a flatulent panda and a sassy, memory-impaired wild elephant.  Estevez Gillespie is greedy poacher Benjamin Beezle with the record-breaking moustache and a gammy leg, as well as a baboon (I think). 

Hadley Taylor’s main role among many is the aforementioned Rhino-in-distress, Horn Solo, who inexplicably talks like Kermit the frog.  Jason Chasland portrays two mammalian authority figures: Edna the sagacious domesticated elephant, (whose respected reputation conveniently stretches from her home in ‘Zoolandia’ to the old country), and Noah the uber-smooth macho king lion.

Darlene Mohekey is both uber-baddie Wanda the Weirdo Witch, and Dexter’s dearly missed Mum.  Besides these mentioned, other members of the animal kingdom represented are baboons, a meerkat, flamingos, and a hippo.  In trying to retrospectively place every character with the actor that played them, it’s hard to believe there are only six players in total. 

Across the board the cast’s skills in comedy, song and dance are for the most part commendable.  Styles of humour employed include puns, slapstick, innuendo, puns, reference humour (films, music, social media etc), puns, character humour, observational irony and puns.  A similarly eclectic range of musical styles draws on the likes of the Black Eyed Peas, The Clash, Backstreet Boys, Dolly Parton, Joan Jett, Jessie J and John Lennon, et cetera.

The artistic direction appears to follow the same mandate of fun-driven absurdism as the rest of the production.  The set, designed by Dan Williams, comprises a cave, a scaffold and rope jungle gym, rocks, plants and reversible signs to denote the two main locales of the local ‘Zoolandia’ park and the wide open spaces of Central Africa. 

The impressive efforts of costume designer Sarah Burren bring a wide spectrum of colour and vibrancy to the onstage party, with too many favourite examples to mention. 

The actors draw maximum entertainment by any means necessary, appropriate or otherwise.  The broadness of certain characters – e.g. Wanda – could feasibly be construed as culturally offensive, but then so might Beezle the right-wing Pom or Britney the selfie-obsessed Kiwi teenager; indeed, just about anyone besides Dexter.  For his part, talking animals and other elaborate hallucinations would be cause for serious psychiatric concerns in reality. 

Suffice to say, this is not reality, and nobody is safe from politically incorrect stereotypification.  Even the truly devastating reality of the impending doom of some of the world’s oldest continent’s most majestic beasts is essentially glossed over in the name of escapist holiday entertainment.  Personally I have no objection to this M.O.; it plants the seed for contemplation of the tragic real-world implications once the catharsis of outrageous mirth subsides. 

Judging by the audience’s consistently clamorous appreciation, no-one else objects much either.  Potentially awkward questions for parents to field on the way home include, but aren’t limited to, whether there really is only one Black Rhino left in the world, and/or what exactly the grown-ups were laughing at so guiltily at certain points. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer