WHEN British writer Roald Dahl reworked in 1982 six traditional fairy tales as poetic works with amusing surprise endings and had them published in a book called Revolting Rhymes he had no idea how successful the collection would be.
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They have been adapted for the stage as comic works and musicals, with people of all ages enjoying the shows. And they have certainly been popular with staging teams.
Hunter training company WEA, now known as ATWEA, is staging one of the musicals, Roald Dahl's Jack and the Beanstalk: A Gigantically Amusing Musical, as a school holiday show at its Creative Arts Space (CAS) theatre in Hamilton from October 3 to 5, as part of its Young Directors Program and Youth in Performing Arts courses, with a 17-member cast of young performers aged five to 14. And the musical's directors, Isabella Sykes and Jack Andrew, are both aged 15.
The musical, which runs for a brisk 45 minutes and includes 12 bright songs, began life as a 1996 concert-style show commissioned by the Roald Dahl Foundation, that combined narration and music by Latvia's Georgs Pelecis, with its success leading to a musical theatre adaptation by composer-playwrights Ana Sanderson and Matthew White. Jack is played by Christian Morrison and his mother by Jocelyn Kendall, with Eden Marshall and Rosa Crispin manipulating and voicing a literally Giant puppet. Isabella Sykes notes, with a smile, that they have given physically special twists to the giant.
The large ensemble of young performers play friendly farm animals, including Daisy, a cow that Jack's mother makes him take to a market to sell, pigs, chickens and dogs, and market sales people who behave in very different ways. And Dahl certainly put in amusing elements that aren't in the original fairy tale, such as having the Giant able to smell people who don't wash themselves regularly, with Jack, as he climbs the beanstalk in search of gold leaves that are at the top, hearing him sing "Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!"
Despite his young age, Jack Andrew, has had a notable acting career, following in the footsteps of his acclaimed mother, singing teacher and performer Joanna Andrew. Jack has performed in many shows, including professional productions in Sydney, and in 2018 won a CONDA nomination for a Male Actor Under 18 for his performance in the musical The Addams Family. This year, Jack and his mother worked together in Opera Hunter's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. He applied to be a member of the ATWEA young directors course to further increase his theatre abilities.
"It's certainly a new experience," he said. "Isabella and I put everyone's input into the show."
Roald Dahl's Jack and the Beanstalk has performances at The Creative Arts Space, 145 Beaumont Street, Hamilton, on Thursday, October 3, at 11am and 2pm; Friday, October 4, at 2pm and 7pm; and Saturday, October 5, at 11am and 2pm. Tickets: $10.50. Bookings: www.trybooking.com.
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