by Lynn Welburn
Nanaimo Daily News

Thursday, July 7, 2005

Now first off don't be thinking that I'm one of those soppy types who just adores children's literature. While a lot of kidlit, especially some of the older works, include the dark side of childhood, there is a tendency in our modern politically correct times to whitewash all that into teddy bears and giggles.

The first thought that passed through my mind on hearing that I was going to review Chemainus Theatre's The Wizard of Oz was, please don't let it be all sunshine and rainbows and saccharine. And, to my complete delight, it was not.

The Chemainus Theatre production, based on a play created for the Royal Shakespeare Company, is derived from the motion picture screenplay, complete with much of the shadings that film contained. It was entertaining, witty and sophisticated in a way that appealed to the adults in the audience, but was in no way unsuitable for the younger crowd either. A neat balancing act but one that Chemainus managed to carry off with the aid of a strong script, well-loved tunes and a cast who did justice to popular characters.

As in most productions of this show, the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man (Andrew Legg, Lindsay Sterk and Mark DuMez respectively) pretty much stole the show the whole time they were on stage, only getting any serious competition from the Wicked Witch of the West (a deliciously nasty Norma Bowen). These are great characters and the cast did them justice, garnering plenty of laughs.

Dorothy was played by Alison MacDonald who did a fair job of looking about 12 and had the audience eating out of her hand when she sang, especially the classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow, when her strong vocals shone.

There were also lots of unusual touches to the production that worked really well. The enchanted forest of rather vampy trees (super costuming!), the tiny twirling house for the cyclone scenes and the puppet of Toto come to mind. At first glance a person moving this dog puppet around the stage makes you wonder... but here's the magic of suspension of disbelief: Because the dog's movements were so charming and lifelike, his puppeteer (Laura Jaszcz), while always visible is soon no longer seen as the mind focuses the eye on the dog. Not easy to do, but it worked.

Of course if you're expecting the vastly expensive special effects of a movie, you will be disappointed. But if you keep in mind this is live theatre and the campy, miniature flying monkeys and other critters moved around on the stage are fun and amusing.