ARTS . Theater

Good Booty


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Published: Nov 27, 2007

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Playwright Kathryn Petersen and composer Michael Ogborn invite audience participation in Treasure Island's first song, pirate-style: "I'll say 'ahoy,' then you say 'ahoy,'" the cast instructs. A moment later, Tom Teti's loopy Squire Treelawnee urges, "Put your hands in the air — c'mon, this isn't the Walnut!"

Just like that, we're hooked.

The exciting evolution of People's Light & Theatre Co.'s holiday tradition continues with this, their fourth original "panto." Built on saucy innuendo, clever local references, excruciating puns and lots of audience interaction (actors in the house, volunteers onstage, candy giveaways, sing-alongs — I defy anyone not to hum "Swab De Deck" all the way home), Treasure Island refines the successful formula of Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk and Robin Hood.

Erin Weaver finally plays the plucky girl, after playing plucky boys the previous two pantos, as cabin girl Jamie on the Ye Olde Blowhard, commissioned for a treasure-seeking voyage with Treelawnee, snooty daughter Evelyn (Susan McKey) and uptight Dr. Livesee (Ben Dibble). Captain Smilenot (Pete Pryor, speaking a hilarious pirate patois) reluctantly hires charming Long John Silver (Ian Bedford) and his henchmen as crew, but they and irascible parrot Polly (Maggie Fitzgerald) have ulterior motives. Fortunately, Jamie has a stowaway guardian angel: her Mother, the requisite "Dame," or man in a dress, played grandly by the irreplaceable Mark Lazar.

David Bradley's production navigates a sure path between storytelling and silliness, building suspense while exploiting every opportunity for laughs, which Petersen amply supplies: some sly for the parents (Polly quips, "Throw me in Gitmo while you're at it"), others broad for everyone (Evelyn and Smilenot stomp grapes in the traditional "slop scene").

People's Light's Family Discovery Series succeeds in large part through first-rate production values; all "family-friendly" (don't call them children's theater) shows receive the same expertise (and budgets) as "adult" shows. Treasure Island boasts James F. Pyne's colorful set (pirate ship in Act I, tropical island in Act II), Paul Hackenmueller's lively lighting, and brilliant costumes by Rosemarie McKelvey. Most importantly, the actors are superb, obviously delighting in the panto style — I've never seen an actor have as much fun in a dress as Lazar, especially in his Carmen Miranda-inspired island ensemble — with open hearts.

Petersen and Ogborn's finale falters, a bland song with an overstated feel-good moral, but they redeem themselves by plugging their inspiration, Robert Louis Stevenson's novel.

Treasure Island

Through Dec. 30

People's Light & Theatre Co., 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern610-644-3500, peopleslight.org