Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
Most of us grownups remember the illustrations of May Gibbs, and her evocative bush characters carved from Australian flora and fauna, before we remember the actual story. The Adventures Of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie And Little Ragged Blossom are really pretty slim.
Two young gumnuts, a laconic frog and lots of little blossoms leave the bush in search of the big city. But now for the Sydney Festival, director Neil Armfield and a top creative team have turned these adventures into a new Australian musical.
What carries the project is again not the story but the characters, here made into real flesh (and feathers and flowers) by an expertly playful cast. They are well aided by Tess Schofield’s costumes. These look deliberately improvised, subtly suggesting each bush character rather than entombing them in big-budget cartoon creations.
Stephen Curtis’s bush playground set of slides, snaky ladders and watering hole is also the perfect launch pad for adventures.
If all this sounds more suitable for your favourite eight-year-old, then you’d be right. What makes it also a delightfully adult experience is the cheeky script and lyrics by comedian John Clarke with Doug MacLeod.
Just as May Gibbs used her bush characters to ridicule the social morals of 1920s Sydney, so too do the writers here mock current fads, fashions, celebrities and politics.
Providing the necessary dark forces in the bush are the slivery machinations of Mrs Snake (a husky Kris McQuade) and her wicked henchmen, the Banksia Men.
Determined to drown all gumnuts and thus rid her arch enemy, the Kookaburra, of all gumtrees, Mrs Snake and her Men are at their ironic best in the number Eucalyptus Blues. Ed Wightman also shines as the strutting magpie reporter for the tabloid The Paperback.
Mitchell Butel conquers all as an effete wren and then as the droll frog eye-rolling at the stupidity of gumnuts. Tim Richards and Darren Gilshenan play these fat-bottomed heroes, who begin their adventures as cherubs but end them well-versed in the lessons of mateship, environmental balance and self-acceptance.
All this is put to song by composer Alan John in a score which has charm but little theatrical attack and few memorable numbers -“ except for the (much reprised) Are We There Yet? These Adventures have much for all ages but the gifts are not musical.
The Adventures Of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie And Little Ragged Blossomis at the Theatre Royal until 31 January. The former home of May Gibbs, Nutcote, in Neutral Bay is also worth a visit.
