THE MAGIC PAINTBRUSH presented by Inside and Out Theatre, written and directed by Li Parker (fringe, children’s theatre, Memory Hall today at 4pm, tomorrow at 2pm, Saturday at midday and Nombulelo Hall today at 10am)
Reviewed by Leon Muston, Arts Editor
FROM a storytelling perspective, The Magic Paintbrush is a great tale for young children, which will amuse them from start to finish.
But the props and particularly the puppets are so badly and immaturely made, if I was a child, I’d feel insulted that an adult had thought these things could possibly appeal to me.
The story revolves around an orphaned farm boy, who after falling asleep in the back of a truck suddenly finds himself dumped in the unfamiliar surroundings of the big city.
He meets a rastafarian painter, who gives him a magic paintbrush – whatever he paints comes to life.
The way this is achieved from a production point of view is that the actor (Siya Pietersen) pretends to paint on the front of a screen, while a light projector reveals the puppet behind it.
Also in one case, when he paints a fish, a slippery toy one is thrown to the actor who then throws it back and forth with shrieking young audience members.
Soon the residents are demanding that the boy paint them material objects – cellphones, cars, shoes etc, and then the greedy king (played by an actor under a sheet, with a Muppets-styled puppet head) finds out and demands the boy be brought to him.
The king wants gold, but the boy can only paint things he’s personally witnessed, so he ends up painting things like goldfish or golden mielies.
Around this point of the production the actors disappear off the stage and the action is continued in puppet form. But the puppets are too small to be properly seen, even in a relatively small venue, and don’t seem particularly well designed. The actors also put on silly squeaky voices for the puppets, which are difficult to understand.
During this point most of the children seemed to be talking among themselves, visually losing interest.
The king eventually siezes the paintbrush, but his own greed proves his downfall and the boy learns an important lesson about how even the smallest person can make a difference and change the world for the better.
Overall the children seemed to enjoy the production, but it could have been a lot better.
Surely the same standards of design and acting should be applied, regardless of whether the audience is adults or children.
Tags: children's theatre review, magic, orphan, paintbrush, puppets
