REVIEWS

Irish Timeswriters review events around the country.

The Sleeping Beauty

Cork Opera House

MARY LELAND

The proper and promised magic of a Christmas pantomime is realised in this Opera House production through the work of set designer Lisa Zagone and lighting designer Mick Hurley.

Any version of The Sleeping Beauty might be expected to have the performances of Princess Aurora (a competent Carol Anne Ryan) and her prince, the equally adept Eoin Cannon, as its central features, but in this case the chief acting credits go to George Hanover as the Wicked Witch, Valerie O'Leary as Queen Bee and Liam Butler as King Bling, each of them assisted by costumes which give bling a good name and which again come from Zagone.

It's not that these players outdo the hero and heroine, it's just that we see and hear much more of them. Director Bryan Flynn probably has a reason for this, as he must also have some explanation for including a nightmare wedding sequence whose symbolism, all black leather, white robes and scarlet drapery, may have been directed at the adults in the audience. Certainly there are times when a dark and threatening element in the script by Killian Donnelly and Bryan Flynn threatens to unbalance the festive energy of the presentation, but even then the Zagone/Hurley design skills radiate through the clouded atmosphere.

The band, led by musical director David Hayes, supports the dancers (led by Darrien Wright) through a demanding series of numbers, some of them performed with a slouching sophistication which makes one yearn for an innocent troupe of tiny tots. But it is the visually captivating and strongly medieval quality of the design, stretching the imaginative thematic possibilities of time and clocks and dreams, which distinguishes this show. It only fails once, in the swaddled christening robes of the infant princess, though this is a baby like no other, to the great delight of the enraptured auditorium. And even this device may have been outdone by the underwater scene, where dancing jellyfish are accompanied by a chorus line of shrimps - again a visual treat, giving evidence of the hard-working commitment of the entire pantomime team. Until Jan 11

Maisy Daly's Rainbow

Solstice Arts Centre, Navan

SARA KEATING

Maisy Daly's Rainbow provides young audiences with a window into an exotic past that resonates with familiar situations. Written by Deirdre Kinahan, the 70-minute play is set in 1940s Navan, where schoolboy and "henboy" Johnny delivers eggs to residents and dreams of a life away from

grim, grey Ireland. Inspired by a summer-shower-painted sky, Johnny (Gus McDonagh) sets out to make a rainbow with his new friend, Jenny (Emma Meehan).

The pair are guided through a steep learning arc by the crazy and fabulous Maisy Daly (Clare Barrett), who helps them deal with difficult emotions as they are presented with the various challenges of childhood. As she uses the colours of their feelings to mix the paints, the pair hope that their project will cheer up Johnny's poor widowed Mammy (Sorcha Fox). It is this metaphor that provides the play's most engaging imaginative and educational motif: by identifying emotions with colours - the blue is made from Johnny's tears, the indigo by blackberries and reconciliation - Kinahan provides the audience with a visual expression for both negative and positive feelings.

Pictures and poems from workshops held by Tall Tales Theatre Company hang in the Solstice Arts Centre and testify to the effective communication of this message.

Both the adult and children's roles are played by professional actors, whose truthful performances encourage the young audience to suspend disbelief. Muirne Bloomer's fluid choreography sculpts physical movement from naturalistic gestures, and when director Veronica Coburn allows the movement to develop into full-blown dance scenes the effect is wonderful, especially in the final scene where the dance slows into a beautiful closing tableau. Mark Galione's lighting, meanwhile, provides a palette which uses the many colours of the rainbow for atmospheric as well as tonal effect.

The historical background remains largely undeveloped and, especially for older children, Kinahan's play could have been more revealing of the time - the second World War and the Spanish Civil War are the most obvious contexts for development.

However, Maisy Daly's Rainbow explores a variety of themes - making friends, bullying, grief - with commendable sophistication, and a young audience will be sufficiently challenged as well as consoled. Until Fri, then on tour to Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise (Dec 15-17), Droichead Arts Centre (Dec 18), Roscommon Arts Centre (Dec 20), and Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (Dec 29-30)