KidzStuff Theatre for Children is running a great new talent contest in town called What Bears Have Talent.  Unfortunately, one of the contestants, a young girl called Goldilocks, is not eligible to enter because she isn’t a bear.

Even disguising herself as Goldibear doesn’t help and so she is banished from the contest and wanders through the forest until she comes across an empty house with amongst other things, three chairs, three bowls of porridge and three beds.

This clever and innovative way of beginning Goldilocks and the Three Bears based on our current penchant for reality shows is the work of writer Michele Amas who breathes much needed life into the age old story of Goldilocks and her encounter with the three bears. 

Once arriving at the bears’ house all the famous lines like “Who’s been sitting in my chair” are inventively incorporated into modern themes, Mother Bear’s concern at finding a young girl in her sons bed but one example.

Under the direction of Jane Waddell the fours actors, some playing multiple roles, perform with great energy and continually interact with the audience. 

Natasha McAllister conveys wonderfully the sweet innocence of Goldilocks while Richard Dey is a great authoritarian Father Bear although he nearly steals the show with his Beartrice the Baby Bear Fan. 

Lyndee Jane Rutherford shows great talent as Mother Bear making porridge and Nick Purdie, who doubles as Show Host and Baby Bear, has a great endearing manner that is a hit with the younger members of the audience. 

It all makes for a fresh and invigorating production of a traditional story that is well worth seeing. 

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Just when it seems clear this entertainment would bear no resemblance to the age-old tale (yes, bare-faced bear puns abound), the classic lines in their repetitive pattern play out. Meanwhile a highly accessible story has unfolded.

In Michele Amas’s version, the Bear family has entered the ‘What Bears Have Talent?’ quest and Goldilocks invades their space by trying to enter as well. She is the unpopular new girl at the same school Baby Bear goes to.

Although she does get lost and break into their house, devour the “just right” bowl of Mother Bear’s delicious porridge and topple a chair before falling asleep in Baby Bear’s bed (“You have some explaining to do, young man!”), it all works out well in the end with many more life lessons packed into it than the original has. 

Having got things under way as the Show Host, Nick Purdie morphs into a happily relaxed Justin Bieber-like Baby Bear whose talent is grinning and bearing it as he does what a good bear should – well, mostly.

Richard Dey doubles his stolid and reliable Father Bear, whose talent is an excellent memory, with a deliciously flighty Baby Bear Fan-cum-stalker called Bear Trish.

Mother Bear’s talent is making porridge and keeping the family in order, which Lyndee Jane Rutherford does to a tee.  

Natasha McAllister takes Goldilocks from timid and lonely to appropriately assertive and self-respecting with aplomb. 

The recorded music by Michael Nicholas Williams bounces along nicely to a finale involving his take on a modern hit, ‘Don’t Worry, Bear Happy’. The technical issues that saw actors unlit a couple of times will doubtless be resolved.

Jane Waddell has directed the show in the traverse with KidzStuff’s characteristic flow and relaxed dynamic, to which the young audience responds very positively. There is humour throughout to suit all ages: an ideal family show. 

KidzStuff Theatre for Children specialises in adapting traditional tales with a high recognition factor, and fair enough. I do wish, however, that someone in Wellington would embrace the well known stories of NZ’s world-class writers for children – Margaret Mahy, Joy Cowley, et al.  Tim Bray in Auckland and the Court in Christchurch have done this – Bray and Carl Nixon have adapted a number of our much-loved and popular stories – and it seems a shame that Wellington children should miss out. 

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