ARTS Elephant and Piggie lives up to books
Vince Kanasoot THEATRE
d ELEPHANT AND PIGGIE are having a blast performing for their fans in Carousel Theatre for Young People’s Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!”, the stage adaptation of Mo Willems’s popular children’s book series. Many adventures of the famous duo have been captured in this lively one-act musical that young audiences will certainly enjoy.
The play takes place on a day when anything is possible for Gerald (otherwise known as Elephant) and Piggie. And while they admit they are very different, they firmly believe their unshakable friendship will get them through anything. Throughout the show, we see story elements from many books in the series, including I Am Invited to a Party!, Elephants Cannot Dance!, and Listen to My Trumpet. In fact, the entire show is a variation on We Are in a Book!. The duo see their friendship tested while learning about concepts like sharing and forgiveness.
Director and choreographer Kayla Dunbar has put together a largerthan-life theatrical experience that will keep kids entertained and in awe. For example, Shizuka Kai’s brightly coloured Dr. Seuss–like sets, with images of story-themed items such as stars, ice cream, trumpets, and top hats splashed across them, make for a visual treat for the young ones, while providing a fun playground for the characters to go about their business.
To eliminate the potential awkwardness of actors dressing up as a literal elephant and piglet, costume designer Kiara Lawson goes down a different route. Instead, Gerald is dressed in a conservative grey outfit, accented by an argyle sweater, while Piggie is all pink, including pink hair and overalls.
They look so human, the rest is left up to the audience’s imagination. But with the performances of Tom Pickett (Gerald) and Kelli Ogmundson (Piggie), it’s a breeze. Pickett’s gentle demeanour, which vanishes when he gets overly excited, and Ogmundson’s sparkling exuberance bring the characters to life. Highlights include Gerald’s passionate plea for Piggie to stay in “Don’t Go”, and Ogmundson’s feistiness in “Toy Breaker”.
The trio of Synthia Yusuf, Merewyn Comeau, and Lindsay Warnock are sensational as a sassy girl group, the Squirrelles, livening up the musical numbers with their dynamite vocals and dance moves. Seated on-stage behind a keyboard, musical director Arielle Ballance doesn’t just keep the music and sound effects going—she’s always part of the action, playing the character of Pigeon, reacting to everything with huge animation.
Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” will delight kids and parents, especially those who are fans of the books. The show’s participatory nature, splashy theatricality, fun musical numbers, and lessons on friendship make this an entertaining and worthwhile experience for young children. g
d A DRUG-CARTEL origin story is interwoven with Indigenous ethnography in the visually rich Birds of Passage, which takes some familiar elements to startling new, and very old, places.
Things start simply, in 1968, with the coming-of-age of Zaida, a young woman played by Natalia Reyes, one of the few professionals in the large cast. (In fact, she’ll costar in the next Terminator movie.) The ritual, involving seclusion followed by extravagant courtship dancing, pertains to the Wayuu, nomadic people who inhabited Colombia’s dusty, far-northern Guajira peninsula before the Spanish arrived, and never really surrendered. In fact, they still refer to non-natives as alijunas, very roughly translated as “strangers who break shit”.
Clannishness is the organizing principle here, and Zaida’s incredibly tough mother (Carmiña Martínez) has to climb some family trees before even entertaining the notion of outsider Rapayet (José Acosta) asking for the girl’s hand. To discourage the dude, she demands an extravagant dowry, including whole herds of goats and cattle. He’s serious, though, and enlists a mestizo pal (Jhon Narváez) to help raise some quick capital.
Both notice that American Peace Corps volunteers, avoiding the Vietnam War while playing guitars and skinny-dipping, have a bottomless appetite for marijuana. Rapayet’s relatives grow the green stuff, and it’s just a matter of baling it up and swapping for gringo dollars. As things get more systematized, with small planes and increasingly weaponized meeting places, you see the cartels taking shape, with conflicts forming along ethnic lines. As people get greedy, their loyalties are tested and twisted.
Extended series like Narcos and The Sopranos have dug deep into the pathology of drug-fuelled clan warfare. Codirectors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra—she’s a veteran producer and he made the spooky Amazonian tale Embrace of the Serpent— are more interested in the interface between conflicting cultures than in the crime story. The Scarface stuff takes over anyway, and the tale loses some of its own roots in the mounting body count. At just over two hours, a kind of formal stiffness sets in, and viewers may not feel like rooting for anyone in particular. The wide-screen images are arresting, however, and the movie helps keep remote places, people, and history alive.