Even though I had no idea what the audience found so funny about Shockheaded Peter – A Junk Opera, I still found myself enjoying this production, which is based on a German book of cautionary tales for children. Given that the book was published in the 1800s, the tales do not beat around the bush, showing the horrors that await children if they don’t follow orders.
The set is beautifully painted, contrasting starkly with the ill-fitting costumes in a way that somehow works. The puppets are amazingly horrific and watching the actors’ faces as they manoeuvred them around the stage was more entertaining than the way children were killed off. (I’d like to hope the actors’ expressions are what was so amusing.) Melissa Blank and Rosemary Jeffery displayed impressive vocal range, hitting some wonderful high notes.
As someone who has looked after friends’ kids and found myself telling them not to do something or they’d die, I found it interesting that the same message has been handed down to children through centuries. If you make noise at the table, you’ll fall, be skewered by cutlery, and die. If you beat the dog, it’ll bite you and you’ll die. If you suck your thumbs, someone will cut your thumbs off and you’ll bleed and you’ll die. If you stick your ugly child underneath the floorboards, eventually they’ll refuse to eat and die.
Keep your children away from this show, but if you’re looking for something to do in the Fernwood area, with inexpensive food and drink supplied, this would be one to see.
Shockheaded Peter – A Junk Opera
Until Saturday, December 17
$10 (student price), Theatre Inconnu, 1923 Fernwood Road
theatreinconnu.com