KEY POINTS:
If you think it is a simple journey taking a fairy tale from the page to the stage, think again, says children's theatre company founder, Sarah Somerville.
Somerville founded Phineas Phrog Productions six years ago and has since staged 19 plays at the Bruce Mason Centre, in Takapuna, as well as shows at Auckland Zoo and touring productions around schools and early childhood centres.
While she writes and devises original material for the zoo and school tours, Somerville sticks to much-loved fairy tales for the Bruce Mason productions.
She may not have to worry about copyright issues but her adaptations are far from traditional.
She acknowledges fairy tales often have sinister undertones, but says they are ultimately useful morality tales with characters and scenarios that have timeless appeal to children. It takes her several months of work to strike a balance between child and adult humour, and to include music and movement.
Rather than flicking through a fairy tale compendium - of which she has many - and choosing a story to produce verbatim, Somerville looks for stories which can be given a "Kiwi twist" and layered to ensure they keep the entire family entertained.
"I research the stories and compare and contrast traditional and modern versions. A lot of them have, of course, been produced by Disney and that, I think, has sweetened them. People expect them to be the same as they've seen or read and become used to.
"I often try to put in references or jokes about those versions that are funny for the parents because I want them to enjoy our productions as well."
The productions combine physical and slapstick-style humour enjoyed by younger children, more sophisticated visuals for older brothers and sisters and the in-jokes for adults.
Costumes are bright, sets are colourful and usually a handful of actors - three or four - play a multitude of parts.
References to kiwiana and contemporary culture abound. In The Princess and the Pea, this holiday's offering, the princess competes in a reality TV-style contest to win the prince's heart and a mad professor grows crazy vegetables and talks about global warming. Somerville plays the princess, while Keith Adams and Cameron Douglas tackle the other roles.
Later in the year, when Phineas Phrog stages The Frog Prince, the heroine will be rugby-mad Princess Matilda, who is desperately trying to make the First XV at Miss Celia Smithell's School for Snobby Rich Girls. She meets the frog when he retrieves her golden rugby ball.
In The Ugly Duckling in October, the audience will embark on a tiki tour of New Zealand with the loveable - but ugly - duckling and meet a dolphin called Hector, a poi-twirling wood pigeon and a motorway-loving pukeko called Phyllis.
"The stories have an educational component but they have to be entertaining, especially given how much else we compete with in terms of entertainment," says Somerville. "Family films, like Shrek and Nemo, are incredibly popular and that is what we are up against."
Across the road, at the PumpHouse Theatre, Roald Dahl's children's story The Twits is on stage. The Twits follows the adventures of Mr and Mrs Twit, the Roly-Poly bird and the Mugglewump monkeys.
So seriously do the cast take getting the characterisations right that they spent time at Auckland Zoo observing and learning genuine monkey behaviour.
PERFORMANCE
What: The Princess and the Pea
Where and when: Bruce Mason Centre, Apr 21-26 (no shows Anzac Day)
What: The Twits
Where and when: The PumpHouse, Takapuna, Apr 21 to May 4 (no shows Sundays or Anzac Day)
