We are greeted at the door by two uniformed DOC officers and when the show starts it turns out we’re visitors to a DOC-protected island under the protective care of Sam (Julia Truscott) and Prince Harry (Garth Morgan), who is stationed here to gain real life experience.

Deep in the bush there is a tower in which a lonely Rapunzel (Eryn Street) sings poignantly of her loneliness while hugging her very long plait. She has been imprisoned by her Witch of a mother (Truscott) for her own protection because the precious Rapunzel is – apparently – allergic to people.

When the Prince discovers the tower and Rapunzel, and that her mother casts spells, he declares them all to be against the rules so they have to be evicted to protect the island – although in the same breath he sings a song about it being his job to protect her.

Somehow this central theme of protection vs freedom – intriguingly established as both good and bad practices – is not exploited to dramatic, let alone comic, advantage. Nor are the characters developed and enriched by having them pursue strong objectives, deal with obstacles and grow in the process. The basic elements are sketched in but more often than not the characters are mouthpieces for telling the story rather than its actively driving forces.

That said, the actors are all lively yet relaxed, avoiding the pushiness that often accompanies children’s theatre, and the story unfolds in a reasonably well-paced way. The opening show audience is enthusiastically vocal and the actors handle some extraordinary comments astutely, acknowledging them while not letting the kids derail the show. (One little girl’s solution to the witch problem is to “get a sword and behead her!” Is she a Brothers Grimm aficionado or has she been tuning into the news?)

A number of set-ups – the Prince out of his comfort zone; birds in the treetops – are not developed and paid off. Other elements – like the Prince being turned into a dog, which of course is a no-no on the island – are not set up as well as they could be.

Then there is the sudden revelation [spoiler alert] that Rapunzel is a long lost Princess. Apart from this sudden injection of a whole new story element at the last minute (Prince Harry’s “I didn’t see that coming” gets a hollow laugh from the adults), it seems very ‘class-conscious retro’ to require her to be of royal blood in order that the Prince may marry her.

While it is competent (apart from the mindless habit of singing some songs in irrelevant American accents), there is a strange lack of playfulness in the script and production. That, along with the two-dimensional characters and storyline, makes it all feel like a colour-by-numbers representation of the usually much more richly wrought KidzStuff plays. 

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