Patch Theatre Company. Space Theatre. 16 Apr 2013
"Again, again!".
It may not be the conventional accolade for a theatre piece, nor the sort of catch-cry one sees adorning theatre posters. But it's the highest praise five-year-olds can accord.
In the what's-it-all-about of children's theatre, this response by little ones to their first experience of Patch Theatre's Mr McGee and the Biting Flea surely eclipses the prestigious grownup awards the show has reaped.
Of course, it must be explained to the avid tots of 2013 that live theatre is of-the-moment. It does not do instant replay. Its impermanence is a big part of its beauty. It is a gift of the imagination to the imagination - and we can take it home, read the stories again, and "Patch" in the new images.
This production is now nine years old - a solid repertoire piece which has worked well for Patch at home and on tour.
Director Dave Brown chose a softly-lit, classic European look for the show. In the corner of the Space Theatre, an olde worlde baggage room is depicted. Battered suitcases and trunks pack lofty shelves and the three song-and-dance actors, dressed in knickerbocker-style period costume, use items of luggage, ladders, sack-trucks and assorted backroom found objects, to create small worlds of Pamela Allen's storybook imaginings.
Thus does a Sydney fountain spout and flow miraculously from an old suitcase. An apple is mechanically peeled. A cow comes out of a box...
There are six stories embraced by the production - Mr McGee, Alexander's Outing, Belinda, Brown Bread and Honey, Mary Elizabeth's House and Mr McGee and the Biting Flea. The set stars in all of them in one way or another. Most thrilling is the mysteriously gliding arrival of the huge packing cases wherein whole new worlds, creatures and costumes emerge.
The children marvel. Boys and girls are aligned in fascination. Universality rules in style and content.
Some stories arrest interest more than others, however. Mr McGee is adored, but not as much as Alexander's Outing, the tale of the wayward duckling, which is filled with suspense (as well as science). Belinda, the cow, with her foot-stompin' country music and her very particular temperament, is a joy for all from beginning to end - and beautifully represented by the actors. Stephanie Rossi as front-of-cow with Rory Walker behind and Tim Overton out front, as the farmer who will find a way to milk her, proffer glorious characterisations and, in general, really good harmonies, for this show also is something of a Timothy Sexton-composed operetta.
But, as it was in the first airing of the show, the Brown Bread and Honey story of the King's bakers is the weary moment. My five-year-old companion was suddenly hungry. The 2-year-old went under the seat to explore the floor. A wave of restlessness beset the young audience, as it did when I reviewed this sell-out gem of a show in its first incarnation. Perhaps the process of making little dough cut-outs works better up close than up in the tiers of The Space.
The production soon wins the attention back and, by the time Rory Walker bravely strips down to the naughty nudie to escape that terrible flea, the children's eyes and ears are glued to the stage. They revel in the thrill of taboo. The show ends on a high.
The children have no idea that they have been subjected to a sophisticated musical score or some of the finest artistry of theatrical innovation and illusion; they are singing the Mr McGee refrain and asking to do it all again. Little do they know what a high benchmark they have just set for theatre.
Samela Harris
When: 16 to 20 Apr
Where: Space Theatre Company
Bookings: bass.net.au
