Pete the Sheep
Adapted for the stage by Eva Di Cesare, Tim McGarry and Sandra Eldridge from the picture book by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley.
Directed by Jonathan Biggins. Music and lyrics by Phillip Scott.
Monkey Baa Theatre. The Street Theatre. Tues Oct 7 at 2pm; Wed-Thurs Oct 8-9 at 10am and 2pm; Fri Oct 10 at 10 am and 6pm; Sat Oct 11 at 10am and 2pm.
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Pete the Sheep is rather glorious in a daggy kind of way. Adapted from the Jackie French/Bruce Whatley picture book, it tells the story of shearer Shaun and his sheep, Pete and their attempts to be accepted into a shearing shed where proper traditional dogs do the sheep dogging, not some jumped up "sheep sheep" and his TAFE-trained master.
There are only four performers but it feels like a whole mob when Andrew James, Nat Jobe, Todd Keys and Jeff Teale take to James Browne's exquisitely compact shearing-shed set. They play the dogs, the humans and successfully suggest hordes of singletted shearers and crowds of sheep. James rules the shed as the boss, utterly opposed to the new-fangled approach of Teale's cheerful Shaun and Jobe's very smart sheep Pete.
How Shaun and Pete turn their rejection into the triumph of their Shearing Salon is a development that owes something to tapping into the subterranean vanity of the sheep, who seem to wander around every corner of the set despite there only being only four performers. It's Keys in a ruminant cameo who shows that the desire to be outrageously fashionable can lurk in the heart of the daggiest sheep.
What is so greatly likable about this musical show for the 49 age range is that it not only has all the requisite colour and movement and theatricality and word play and songs but also layers in much that jogs the memory of the accompanying adults. It has an overture that quotes the theme from Skippy and swings into George Dreyfus' haunting tune for Rush. It's laced unselfconsciously with the Australian vernacular. It's full of reminders to pass on the tunes and the idioms of the past.
As for the kids, they revel in Phillip Scott's bouncy songs and are clearly intrigued by the theatrical panache of Browne's set lit with careful selectivity by Matthew Marshall, and an approach to costuming (Browne again) that shows just how a headpiece can be enough to suggest a whole sheep or dog.
And as well as the 50-minute show there's a chance afterwards in a Q and A session to plumb the theatrical mysteries and find out how some of the costume and scenic transformations are done.
Monkey Baa's take on Pete the Sheep is a funny and engaging holiday treat that goes beyond simply putting a picture-book favourite on the stage. There's a chance that it will provide stimulus for real conversations about language and theatre and difference. And challenging the herd mentality.
