Just So

Rudyard Kipling and his Just So stories are so suitable for stage adaptation  that one could believe that he wrote them specifically to be staged.  

The story is of the Eldest Magician and the animals she creates.     Being all rather similar they each go on a quest of self-discovery to find their various characters and become "Just So".   Unfortunately for all, the disobedient crab Pau Amma grows huge and causes floods when he surfaces to feed.   The headstrong Elephant's Child and the flightless and timid Kolokolo Bird set out on a long quest to the Limpopo River to confront the crab.   All the other animals are encountered along the way.   Eventually, the crab is found and effectively and humourously downsized to a normal size and all ends happily.

The central characters of the Elephant's child (Zak Negri) and the Kolokolo Bird (Katrina Hassan) and the Eldest Magician (Lisa Guerriero) are all well cast and underpin this delightful tale.    Zac looked very young and used a suitably childlike voice and had an air of innocence throughout.    Katrina brought out the reluctance and timidity of the Kolokolo bird beautifully and I appreciated her lovely singing voice.

Lisa opened the show, representing the Magician as a librarian.   She thereafter intervened from aloft at various points during the performance.    She had a great stage presence playing a kindly character with gravitas and stood out with her superb diction.

A host of wonderful characters can be proud of their performances.   Kevin Littell as the Parsee Man had a perfect Caribbean accent - poor accents often spoil amateur shows - in this case, quite the reverse!   Of course the Caribbean is not in Africa, but so what, I liked it a lot.   Well done Kevin!   An honourable mention goes to his Cooking Stove (Jamie Milburn), a promising performer.

Carolyn Green, as a bad-tempered Rhino stomping into the auditorium, had great presence and relished the part.

We also had a gruff Leopard ( Neil Dicker) straight from  Eastenders and his pal, the creepy "lounge lizard" Jaguar (Michael Guerriero) in hot pursuit of a daft Zebra (Sandra Mortimer) and an elegant Giraffe (Katy Jackson).   Four "delicious" performances with a special mention of the Leopard, a real trouper, who played on with a broken foot - hurrah for Dr. Stage !

The leggy Kangaroo (Stephanie Tamila), nimble Dingo Dog (Lucy Greenhill) and nose snapping Crocodile (Becci Dingvean) all added their talents to this most enjoyable show.

The cast for this show were mainly young and used their youth to advantage in the innovative and polished choreography by choreographer Sarah Platt.  I was particularly  impressed by the final scene with the "shrinking" pink crab.

Costumes by the in-house team were good and quite rightly not too animal-like.    Thinking members of the audience would have understood why.

This is not a show where one leaves whistling the tunes, but the music was interesting and did not, as so often in amateur theatre, drown the singers.    Musical Director Lorna Bailllie take a bow.   

Bob Noble, the Director can feel very satisfied with this well told and charming show.

Sue, my partner and I had an enjoyable evening and a big thank you to HMSO for inviting me.    Sue particularly liked the Leopard and the Jaguar, they reminded her of the gangsters from Kiss Me Kate!

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