Mad Science [by Dionne Christian]
Okay, recently I wrote of the joys of taking kids to the theatre and of seeing their faces “light up” as they connect with what they’re seeing on stage. Of course, the converse is when they react badly: they shout that they’re bored, they wriggle and jiggle and ask when it will be over, they’re so terrified they cry (loudly) or, in the case of The Thing from the Place, they’re so grossed out that they rush from the auditorium and vomit in the bathroom.
So it was with Miss Eight, but I’d say the grossness on stage – which loads of the young audience love – wasn’t wholly responsible. It probably had more to do with the packet of potato chips, chocolate bar and fruit juice – courtesy of a compliant and well-meaning grandparent – that she’d bolted down before the 50 minute show’s start. Not to mention a lingering spring cough…
Then again, she is a more gentile child and susceptible to visceral reactions to things which unsettle her delicate constitution. So, that’s the thing – if you have a child like her, who’s going to be easily repelled by talk (and eating) of ‘bogies’ and ‘boogas’, not to mention a giant luminous green snot monster, then probably best to take them to some other show.
But if you have a child like my Miss Four who giggles and whoops and screams with the best of them, The Thing from the Place will be a wonderful mash up of mad science, monsters, romance – yes, it’s ultimately a love story – and madcap acting, dancing and singing.
Physical comedy company Theatre Beating say they make theatre that children love because of its mischievousness and adults because of the subversive nature of their comedy. As its latest production, The Thing from the Place is a family-orientated horror-comedy with mischievousness and subversiveness in large measure. Inspired by kitsch horror movie makes like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, it pays homage to B-grade celluloid larger-than-life characters, chaotic plots and clichéd settings like the mad scientist’s laboratory, where evil is brewing, and focuses very much on high-camp hilarity rather than horror.
Young Frankie (Johnny Brugh) is a novice scientist keen to impress his hero Dr Lungbutter (Trygve Wakenshaw) at the Institute of Nasal Discharge so he experiments with all sorts of weird and wonderful concoctions which mostly involve lurid green slime, mucous and nose-pickings. It horrifies his snobbish mother (also played by Wakenshaw) who warns Frankie he’ll be friendless for life if he doesn’t find a new interest. But, in an experiment gone wrong, he conjures up a giant green snot monster who he calls Clarissa and everything changes.
It’s the sort of gross-out stuff most young children snigger at and it does what it does well enough. Post-show, one family said they loved it because it was original and different while dad declared he’s never felt such sympathy for a ball of mucous. Miss Four reckoned she liked it all but especially Frankie’s mum and the disco dancing.
The awesome set – featuring gadgets, odd looking bits of machinery, clever lighting effects – is a real tribute to award-winning designers Celery Productions and lighting designer Nick Janiurek. Even grandma, who dealt with the vomit incident, acknowledged it was evocative and effective. (Well, I couldn’t get up and leave – I was working!!)
The melodramatic music and sound effects, courtesy of organist Jeff Henderson, is a perfect match and adds to the heightened silliness of it all. A stand-out is when Frankie goes looking for his lost love armed with a dimly lit lantern and a heart full of hope.
Brugh and Wakenshaw, who plays multiple characters with equal aplomb, are masters of comic timing and happily ham it up. But Barnie Duncan, who spends the show encased in green spandex which he shares with a variety of assorted blob shaped objects, manages to steal the show without uttering a word. That he manoeuvres around the multi-levelled set without breaking a leg is miraculous and must have involved him and director Geoff Pinfield in some interesting logistical work-outs.
It probably helps that the quartet has worked together often before and feel relaxed enough with one another to let loose and have some silly fun which should amuse most children – just not the delicate.
The Thing from the Place is presented by Time Out Theatre and Theatre Beating and plays twice daily at the Concert Chamber until 12 October. Details see The EDGE.
SEE ALSO: Theatreview.org.nz review by Nik Smythe
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