Written and directed by Potted Panto/Potted Potter duo, Daniel Clarkson and Richard Hurst, The Pirate the Princess and the Platypus is a witty, song-strewn send up of fairy tale conventions with a feminist twist – complete with a frog puppet demanding to be kissed.
A Princess (Teegan Hurley – strong) does not need to sit about passively waiting for Prince Charming or one of his alter-egos. She can be feisty and make her own decisions. Similarly there’s no reason why a pirate (Alex Stedman – nuanced) should be cruel, domineering and swashbuckling.
And as for Josephine Starte’s Platypus, partly there, of course, for titular, alliterative reasons, she’s such an unlikely presence that she’s hilarious. Every child in the audience learns that she’s a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal and happy to be so.
Starte, who trained in Sydney, acts as a quasi narrator as we roam across Jessica Curtis’s inventive set complete with flaps and secrets, the cast effectively playing like children in a nursery bedroom. The bed boat, for example works well.
This show is aimed at over fives who will know the stories.
Review by Susan Elkin