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by Caroline Smith, directed by Rob Torr

Torrent Productions, Royal Canadian Legion #001/042, 243 Coxwell Avenue, Toronto

December 22-31

Blue Fairy: “Be good of heart and true,

And all good things will come to you”

Last year Torrent Productions gave Toronto a taste of what a real British panto is like with Robin Hood: A Merry Magical Pantomime.  Audiences obviously liked what they saw because this year Torrent is back with Pinocchio: A Merry Magical Pantomime and some shows are already sold out.  The venue, the auditorium of the Royal Canadian Legion at Coxwell and Gerrard, and the production values may be humble.  But what Torrent gets wonderfully right is the true nature of pantos and why they appeal so much to children.  

Ross Petty may be credited with naturalizing the British panto in Toronto starting with his Robin Hood in 1996.  But since that time his productions have become less like real pantos and more like “family musicals” that have gradually lost the most important aspect of the panto tradition, namely audience participation.  For the last several years audience participation has been restricting almost entirely to allowing the audience to boo the villain.

A real panto like Torrent’s Robin Hood last year and its Pinocchio this year gives the audience a much more extensive role to play.  This is important because one of the main functions of pantos that makes them so enjoyable for children (and adults) is to provide a forum for a role reversal wherein children are permitted openly to judge and advise adults.  Besides the all-important booing which allows children vocally to criticize adult meanness, some characters in Pinocchio have catch-phrases that children are meant to repeat on their appearance that gives the audience a means of showing them their support.  Besides this, the audience helps characters who can’t see the obvious by calling out “He’s right behind you!” or point out a bad character’s blatant lie with “Oh, yes you did!” or “Oh, no you didn’t!”  Best of all is when a character such as Pinocchio has a choice to make between good and bad and asks the audience what to do.  Even when the character chooses the wrong path despite the children’s loud chorus of “No!”, the children recognize that their advice was correct.

All of the group actions given to the audience help to build a spirit of community that is opposed to the negative world view of the villain.  Other actions that enhance this group feeling are the traditional mad chase through the audience, where excited children get to see the the stage actors up close as they race about, and the final group sing-along with gestures that unites the audience and the performers in a general celebration. 

Panto author Caroline Smith and director Rob Torr have thought of even more ways than these to involve the audience in the action.  When Pinocchio and his father and friends are trapped inside a whale, they ask the children’s help in standing up and tickling the whale to make him laugh and open his mouth so they can escape.  Also, unlike the big “family musical” downtown interrupted by filmed commercials, Smith has cleverly woven references to local businesses in the Gerrard and Coxwell area into the dialogue so that they are both humorous and memorable.  After all, on the one hand we are supposed to be in 19th-century Italy, but, in an amusing anachronistic paradox, we also seem to be right where we really are in the present in the Legion at Gerrard and Coxwell.  Anyone who thinks metatheatre is a modern concept should think again.  The non-existent fourth wall, the actors’ awareness of the audience and the audience’s awareness of being in a theatre are constant sources of humour in pantos about the pretences of the theatrical experience itself. 

As happened last year, Torr gets the panto’s tone of mock seriousness exactly right.  This is because he seems to have a keen insight into what the form is all about that he has fully communicated to his acting troupe.  Almost the entire cast of Pinocchio were in Robin Hood last year and their easy familiarity with the genre is evident in their performances.

Kevin Aichele, who played Little John last year, emerges this year as the perfect panto villain as the evil puppet-master Stromboli.  Since Ross Petty retired from panto, he has not been able to find a replacement who has what panto villain needs – a strong stage presence and a seemingly ferocious contempt for the audience.  Tall, with striking looks and a deep voice, Aichele immediately dominates the stage whenever he appears and his disdainful demeanour elicits a tsunami of boos even before he says a word.  His egregious (yet humorous) insults of the children only unleash further rounds of booing. 

As the opposite force for good in the play is Cynthia Hicks, last year’s Maid Marian, who returns as the genial Blue Fairy.  Both she and Aichele effortlessly and clearly speak in rhyme, she in a calm, soothing voice in contrast to his growling roughness.  It’s fun that Smith’s script gives Hicks a chance to show another side of her personality when the Blue Fairy dresses up as a tough boy to watch over Pinocchio when he decides to go to Candy Island (or Pleasure Island as it’s called in the Disney film).      

Greg Campbell, who played the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham last year, returns this year as the kindly Gepetto, whose answered wish is to have Pinocchio become a real boy.  Also returning is Stuart Dowling as the dame – Nurse Tickle last year, Dame Expresso this.  Again he is hilarious as a flouncy sort of Mae West but very tall and without the hour-glass figure.  Sal Figliomeni’s gowns for her, especially the “radishing” red gown in Act 1 (note the price tag on the hat) are a real hoot. 

Those familiar with the story of Pinocchio will know there is no one in Carlo Collodi’s original 1883 book or in the 1940 Disney movie who is remotely like a dame.  Writer Caroline Smith, therefore has created a role for her in the panto as a widow and the woman of Gepetto’s dreams, except that Gepetto is too shy and feels he is too poor to make his feelings known.  In an extraordinarily clever scene, Smith, imagining that Dame Expresso runs a candy store, has Gepetto and Expresso flirt with each other by making puns on virtually every brand of candy bar or other confection sold in Canada including both Smarties and M&Ms.

Ryan Brown, who was the lively but dim-witted Pinch last year, returns as the lively but dim-witted Fox this year accompanied by newcomer Daniel Greenberg as the even more dim-witted Cat.  We may feel bad when they outwit the innocent Pinocchio of all of his money, but it’s very satisfying to see how easily Stromboli later outwits them.         

     

Kelsey Verzotti, fresh from the success of Britta Johnson’s musical Life After, plays Chirp the cricket who explicitly introduces herself as Pinocchio’s conscience.  Though a newcomer to panto, she fits right in with the spirit of the show and gives a lively rendition of the Aretha Franklin’s classic “Respect” (1967) including backup singers Brown and Greenberg singing “Sock it to me” with sock puppets.

As usual the songs in the panto are borrowed from many sources ranging from “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” (1944) and “I Got the Sun in the Mornin’” (1946) to “ABC” (1970), “Bad” (1987), “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” (1988) and “Under the Sea (1989).  Of all the numbers the most effective is Shawn Mendes’s “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” imaginatively choreographed by Stephanie Graham and precisely performed with synchronized steps and gestures by Francis and the ensemble.   

Noah MacDougall returns as music director and keyboardist with Justin Han on percussion.  As was true last year, the amplified keyboards tended to overwhelm the unamplified singers so that their words did not always come through.

Otherwise, it’s clear that Torrent Productions has a another hit on its hands with Pinocchio.  It an uplifting family show bursting with fun sure to please children as well as adults.  It’s celebration of community and good cheer is perfect for the holiday season and will fill you with the warm mood of pleasure shared by old and young alike.   

       

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photos: (from top) Cameron Francis as Pinocchio and Stuart Dowling as Dame Expresso, ©2017 Rob Torr; Cameron Francis as Pinocchio, ©2017 Sam Gaetz; Kevin Aichele as Stromboli, ©2017 Sam Gaetz; Daniel Greenberg, Stuart Dowling, Greg Campbell, Cameron Francis, Kevin Aichele, Cynthia Hicks, Kelsey Verzotti, Ryan Brown. ©2017 Sam Gaetz.

For tickets, visit www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2937916