PINOCCHIO by Simon Sharkey from Carlo Collodi. Cumbernauld Theatre to 29 Decembe

Cumbernauld

PINOCCHIO
by Simon Sharkey

Cumbernauld Theatre To
Runs 1hr 45min One interval

TICKETS 01236 732887
Review Timothy Ramsden 21 December

A brisk and lively step through the story of the puppet who seeks human status .This show starts with an invite to the audience to play a joke on old Gepetto, the woodcarver. And Simon Sharkey's adaptation, filleting Carlo Collodi's story of the puppet whose nose grows when he lies, and whose ambition is to become human, accentuates entertainment. Deeper issues are skated over, but the piece gains a strong pace in the process.

Even the devices apparently aimed at making some point are lightly handled. So, the audience is asked to call out whenever Pinocchio strays from the winding path down the centre of Finlay McKay's useful set. Yet it's often while he stays on the path that our wooden hero steps into trouble, being for example man-trapped into short-term service as a guard dog.

Not that there's anything wooden about Mary Gapinski's Pinocchio, an initially pugnacious, but lively and genially irresponsible creature in every move, taken by surprise whenever trouble attacks. Though there's limited alarm, even in the eternal playground where Pinocchio and Lampwick are turned to asses for refusing to go properly to school.

Villainy comes in the forms of the child-hating Fox and Cat. Even this pair are only lightly threatening, being cowards as well as bullies, and greatly to be hissed. Sharkey focuses more on the choices Pinocchio needs to make. At first, when still a block of wood, Pinocchio-to-be cries out at the prospect of being chipped away by Gepetto. When he's fully carved, he has to learn a similar feeling for others, beginning with the refusal to betray his fellow puppet Harlequin.

Such a sense of responsibility is most greatly shown in Gepetto's search for the lost Pinocchio, displaying a father, and craftsman's, care for his creation, something reflected when Pinocchio himself sets out into danger to find his 'father'.

Guarding against the prospect of loud audience response the voices are heavily-miked, risking a break in the direct actor/audience contact, especially with Tony Ventre's calm and kindly Gepetto. Overall though, Cumbernauld have an amiably crafted Christmas entertainment.

Fairy: Eilidh MacDonald
Pinocchio: Mary Gapinski
Gepetto: Tony Ventre
Fox: John Kielty
Cat: Kevin Lennon

Director: Simon Sharkey
Designer: Finlay McLay
Costume: Maggie Miller
Lighting: William M. Winter
Music: Karen MacIver

2001-12-29 11:15:35