Review: Pinocchio

No expense or creativity is spared, in and out of the theatre, for the MAC's Christmas extravaganza, Pinocchio. The foyer's speakers wish it could be Christmas everyday (well, no, but you get the idea), there's a Wishing Wood in the bottom corner of the complex for those who feel lucky (I do, but will say no more), and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker is heard as we sit down in the auditorium itself before it all begins. Does that mean we'll get a show both nuts and cracking?

Yes it does.

From the very moment the opening musical number kicks into gear, with five of the seven cast members performing a lovely antidote to loneliness underneath a shower of "snow", we're on extra special footing. Which is only to be expected from the inventive minds of director Paul Bosco McEneaney and Cahoots NI, but feels great nonetheless.

Then, the entire tone of the song changes as Geppetto (Bob Kelly) stumbles around with a lantern right through a door in Sabine Dargent's beautifully designed backdrop of scattered islands and bright blue oceans. Which is, in its own way, a dual metaphor. Is it peeling wallpaper, a sign of a fading life that once was for Geppetto? Or is it the exciting and dangerous world which the prodigal son, the title character, is going to see for himself?

I think it's both. Such are the possibilities in Carlo Collodi's original story, the source from which McEneaney, writer Charles Way, composer Garth McConaghie and lyricist Hugh W. Brown (who also plays the Fox) have drawn their inspirations. This means no Pleasure Island - but to be frank, considering its horrors, one really wouldn't want to see it! Instead, the terrifying aspects are softened and smartly incorporated into a taut narrative strongly served by a series of catchy tunes. This is, after all, a children's show.

So Pinocchio is "constructed" from a talking piece of wood (yes) after the Blue Fairy (an entrancing Charlotte McCurry) sings beside a sleeping Geppetto. Emerging as a believable soul through actor Max Abraham's wide-eyed, playful, determined dedication, Pinocchio's charming naivete and belief that if you're kind to others they'll return the favour only strengthens our sympathies for a puppet who will be no more than that to those who will take advantage of him. Like Rocombollo (a brilliant Sean Kearns) and his Marvellous Mechanical Medicine Show, later Grand Illusions, for instance.

And we get grand illusions aplenty, of the physical and visual kind, some of which are quite spectacular. Again, that's expected from Cahoots. But the cast impress most. I like the active, caring portrayal of the Blue Fairy. I like the tomfoolery of the Fox and Jo Donnelly's Cat. I like that Bob Kelly's Geppetto is grounded and downtrodden, a guy who doesn't seem to so much wish upon a star as upon anything that will take or listen to his burden.

Then there is Philippa O'Hara's Candlewick. The name alone is melancholy, a flickering talent set to be discarded once her flame burns out. Or worse, like Pinocchio, to grow donkey's ears and make an unmentionable of herself. As Pinocchio and Candlewick gradually bond while performing for the corrupt Rocombollo, O'Hara enables us to connect with her character by showing us that she isn't mean-spirited - just someone who was misled and feels bound to her circumstances having been trained for nothing else. She, too, is like a puppet in an act, in danger of losing what humanity she has at the whim of a con man who won't be questioned or upstaged. It's a troubling but invaluable message: experience and enjoy the spotlight but don't fall for the cult of it, one of many things that resonate about this wonderful production.

Simon Fallaha

Pinocchio runs at Belfast's MAC Theatre until Sunday 01 January.