The Pied Piper
Tararua Tramping Club, 4 Moncrieff St, Mt Victoria, Wellington
27/09/2008 - 11/10/2008
Production Details
AT OUR NEW VENUE: Tararua Tramping Club, 4 Moncrieff St., Mt. Victoria
Abbey and Marco journey into an imaginative world where nobody is as they seem. Full of songs and laughter, the classic tale of The Pied Piper takes on a whole new life and bedtime will never be the same again!
Mean Mayor Money Bags’ idea to win the election and get rich with rat-powered generators goes horribly wrong when the rats unite and revolt against their poor work conditions. The Pied Piper comes to the rescue, but there’s trouble when he doesn’t get paid. Hang on to your children for this hilarious holiday adventure!
Rob Ormsby has written a string of much loved and highly successful plays for KidzStuff, including The Princess and the Pea, Jack and the Beanstalk and most recently, Which Witch is Which?
We are delighted to have Patrick Davies back to direct this show after directing our last two holiday hits, Which Witch is Which? in April and Puss ‘n Boots in July.
The cast includes
Bryony Skillington, who is returning after her stunning performance in Puss ‘n Boots,
David Goldthorpe, who has just returned from playing the Earthworm in Fortune Theatre’s James and the Giant Peach in Dunedin. David also toured in Songs of the Sea with Capital E last year and appeared in Troy (the musical) at Circa Theatre.
Jess Robinson, who performed in KidzStuff’s The Sleeping Beauty last year and
Jack Sergent, who is making his debut in a children’s play, but he wrote and performed a solo piece as part of Familiar Strangers for the Fringe Festival this year and most recently starred in the highly acclaimed Comedy Festival play Rubber Turkey by Eli Kent in which he played a chicken!
Performance Times:
Monday – Friday 11 am and 1 pm
Saturdays at 11 am
Tickets $10
Groups of 10+ $8.00 each
Children under 2 Free
With special prices for holiday programmes
Special Opening Preview 27 September $5.00 per ticket.
Bookings: phone 385 0292
Fizzy mix of slapstick, sweetness and humour
Review by Maryanne Cathro 29th Sep 2008
I’ve always wondered why, in a world of a million stories, children’s theatre always returns to the classics. I now think it’s partly because every classic can have a million interpretations, and partly because the adults care about the plot even if kids don’t, and this way the familiar gives us half a chance of following the story!
This KidzStuff production of the Pied Piper is a fizzy mix of slapstick, sweetness, audience participation and music, and of course humour. The plot is clever but not cunning enough to pin a tail on and call it a rat. And really, nobody cares, certainly not the rapt audience of kids sitting on the floor up front hanging on every gag. Certainly not the grown ups, to whom the cast throw enough one liners over the top of the kids’ heads (in every sense) to keep us amused.
The cast keep the energy high and the action moving along at a cracking pace, a great example of ensemble work. They get the audience involved right from the start, and drew the kids into the magic. I loved David Goldthorpe’s empathetic Dad, but if there is a star, it is Bryony Skillington, whose range of facial expressions alone are worth going to see. Excellent performances also from Jess Robinson as the too-busy Mum (struck a chord for me!) and a mayor who was a cross between Marilyn Munro and Cruella d’Evil, and Jack Sergent who keeps up with his many character changes, including a delightfully ineffectual pirate.
But ultimately, kid’s theatre is for the kids, and my 6 year old niece absolutely loved it. She wouldn’t be drawn on the details, but I can understand that, as the real signs of a great kids’ show are a sort of warm fuzzy glow comprised of walking out smiling and laughing with the theme song in one’s head and wanting everyone else to go and see it too. And we weren’t the only ones!
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