Staging some fun for children

THE SECRET OF DONGTING LAKE (left to right) Leand Macadaan, Yuri Kinugawa & Min Kim. Photo / Supplied

The Secret of Dongting Lake, which is based on a Chinese folk tale, was adapted specially for the September school holidays programme.

How do you adapt a play which uses the talents of up to 250 school children into one with parts for just eight adult actors?

That was the question Bronwyn Bent, producer of public programmes at The Edge, faced when she read the script for The Secret of Dongting Lake and decided it would make a perfect school holiday show.

She saw it as a high quality production which would reach a wide cross section of people, particularly Asian Aucklanders who currently make up only a small number of The Edge's overall audience.

Based on a Chinese folk story, The Secret of Dongting Lake has all the elements of a rip-roaring adventure yarn: heroes who go on epic voyages, villains, dragons and princesses. It was just that the cast had to be considerably reduced to make it possible.

So Bent approached award-winning playwright Michaelanne Forster, who first developed The Secret of Dongting Lake for the Calico Children's Theatre, and innovative director Ben Crowder, and let them sort it out.

A trained teacher, Forster's first TV job was as a script editor for Play School before going on to work on kids' shows like Bumble, The Big Chair, What Now and After School. She has also written a number of plays and books for children.

Crowder directed the Silo Theatre's sell-out hit Badjelly the Witch and the touring production of Buzzy Bee's Big Day Out. Bent says he's adept at devising shows and problem-solving, so he was the perfect director.

Forster was inspired to write the play by a book of "beautifully illustrated" Chinese folk tales she owns.

She says paring back the characters was relatively straightforward; she concentrated on those who exemplify the main themes. There are now eight actors, and a three-person chorus, playing around 20 characters. All those on stage are of East Asian descent.

When Forster met the cast, she fleshed out the characters they would play by making use of any special talents they had. Mitchell Kwan, the youngest actor in the production at 18, is a former gymnast and springboard diver. He plays three characters, one of whom now gets to show off a range of high energy and impressive dance moves.

Like Kwan, J.J. Fong has never appeared in a children's theatre show. An emerging recording artist, the 24-year-old was attracted by the fact The Secret of Dongting Lake features an all-Asian cast.

"It's very rare to get the opportunity to work on a project like this. I found it very exciting to be working with a group of young Asian people, with a variety of backgrounds."

While she plays a princess, Fong says the character isn't a cliched damsel-in-distress waiting for a hero to rescue her.

Meanwhile, in Takapuna, two favourite characters from children's literature will be waiting for a mouse and a giant eagle to rescue them from the clutches of one of the most notorious storybook witches.

Tim Bray Productions is putting on Badjelly the Witch, written by British comedian Spike Milligan originally as a story for his own children. While Bray received permission from Milligan's estate to adapt the much-loved story slightly, it features all the familiar elements.

Searching for their lost cow Lucy, brother and sister Tim and Rose get lost in the forest next to their farmhouse. Determined to find Lucy so they can have milk for their porridge, they encounter a collection of weird and wonderful characters.

There's Binklebonk, a tree goblin with the power to make trees grow bigger, his barking grasshopper/dog Silly Sausage, an apple tree who used to be a policeman, Mudwiggle the strongest worm in all the world, and the heroic Dinglemouse who must fetch his friend Jim the eagle to rescue Tim and Rose from Badjelly.

Bray cast actor Julian Wilson as Badjelly, saying he didn't mind whether the baddest witch in all the world was played by a male or female.

"The truth is that Julian simply did the best audition on the day."

But both he and Wilson believe having Badjelly played by a man, and therefore more of a pantomime-style of character, may make the character less scary for younger theatre-goers.

Wilson, who grew up reading and listening to Badjelly the Witch, says he was recently sorting out some childhood mementos when he came across the story. A new father, he decided to keep it aside for his son.

"There's just something charming and timeless about the story."

Similarly, the fairytale Puss 'n' Boots retains its appeal. Phineas Phrog founder/producer Sarah Somerville, once again marries the tried and true story with all new New Zealand elements including a cobbler with the strangest of shoes and shape-shifting ogre who only wants to eat toast.

LOWDOWN
What: The Secret of Dongting Lake
Where: Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall
When: October 4-9

What: Badjelly the Witch
Where: The PumpHouse, Takapuna
When: September 27-October 9

What: Puss 'n' Boots
Where: Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna
When: October 4-9

Also: Tim Bray Productions also brings its Snake & Lizard play south these school holidays. Adapted from Joy Cowley's popular stories, it is on at Papakura's Hawkins Centre from October 5-8.