BY ANNA GRACE
James (Patrick O’Driscoll) stands by (clockwise) Grass Hopper (Drew Barton), Lady Bug
(Hayley Zeal), Centipede (Jermaine Golden) and Miss Spider (Jessie Ryan)
Peachy Keen
Mad Duckling delivers with James
T
he UO’s Mad Duckling Children’s
Theater is one of those summer tra-
ditions, like sparklers and popsi-
cles, that made me want to turn in my calm
and productive existence for two children
and a Subaru. Mad Duckling does so much
right in the world of children’s theater that
for years I had to borrow other people’s
kids to have an excuse to go. This year I had
my own 4-year-old, Owen.
Mad Duckling opens the season with
James and the Giant Peach, adapted by
David Wood from Roald Dahl’s 1961
novel. It is the story of a young boy who
accidentally spills a powerful magic potion
on the ground, creating an enormous peach
the size of a house and five human-sized
insects. James escapes the abuse of his
sadistic aunts by climbing into the peach
with the insects, cutting it loose from the
tree and having numerous adventures as the
peach sails across the Atlantic to New York
City. The darker events are sensitively skirt-
ed in the play. You and your child will not
see James’s parents being eaten by a rhi-
noceros (can herbivores even digest peo-
ple?), and the play does not encourage chil-
dren to flatten their evil aunties with abnor-
mally large fruit.
The action-packed story is condensed
into 50 minutes and seven actors, so scenes
and characters change quickly with few
props and costumes to help the audience
along. Because Giant Peach is pure fantasy,
it is an exercise in imagination and focus
well suited to 6- and 7-year-olds but hard
for a 4-year-old to follow.
The cast did a fine job keeping up with
the pace of the show and tempering their
over-the-top characters with real emotion.
Kids laugh at the squabbling aunts and
worry about where James should hide the
magic potion. Occasionally scenes lose
children’s attention, but for the most part
the actors are able to walk the line of over-
acting just enough — and Jessie Ryan, the
Spider, performs flawlessly. The physical
action of the characters is paramount and
impressively choreographed and executed.
As narrator, Joseph Oyala leads the show
with admirable humor and energy, even act-
ing as several characters along the way. At
one point a ship’s captain and two sock
puppets have some dialogue, and I did not
realize until the end of the scene that Oyala
was playing all three.
The big news for Mad Duckling this
year is the change of venue. Rather than the
shady knoll next to Villard Hall, Mad
Duckling has moved to Amazon Park in
Eugene and Island Park in Springfield. I
was disappointed; I enjoy taking Owen to
campus for special events. When I told him
we were going to a play at the park, that
quickly got switched in his mind to we were
going to play at the park, so he was a little
disappointed to sit down in the grass. But
once the actors and props began spinning
around on the stage, we could have been
ew
anywhere.
James and the Giant Peach plays in Amazon Park at 11
am through Saturday, July 14. It moves to Island Park in
Springfield for 11 am performances July 17- 21. Tix
available at 346-4192.
BLUE SKIES AND
BUTTERFLIES
Opens Friday, July 13, at the Very Little
Theatre’s Stage Left.
A new play by Eugene playwright
Eileen Dawson Peterson, who has been
working on the script for 15 years, Blue
Skies promises a look at the worlds of
social gambling (especially betting on
horses) and nursing homes, with a cast
of four elderly folks, the alcoholic nurs-
ing home administrator and the adminis-
trator’s socially challenged aide, who’s
also obsessed with Superman. Gambling,
addiction and superheroes — all inside
the Sunset Senior Care Home? You
betcha we’re going. The run is short —
show dates are July 13-15 and 20-21 — so
get your tix early by calling 344-7751.
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“Because the Mouth Bone is Connected to the Body Bone”
JULY 12, 2007
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