There are only a few more chances to catch New West Theatre’s re-imagination of Three Little Pigs at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre.
The last two performances of the Jeremy Mason penned production are 1 p.m. and 3;30p.m. on Jan. 2. They take off Jan. 1.
The show keeps the cast on their toes as Ryan Reese, Kelly Malcolm Camille Pavlenko race around the stage playing a plethora of woodland creatures.
The show starts a little slowly as the cast convince the audience “ to use their imaginations,” to imagine a world where animals, not only talk, but go to school, work, “ bring home the bacon” and have to pay the rent.
But it gives the trio a chance to “ ham it up” as they try on a variety of accents and countless costumes and characters. All three not only play the three little pigs plus assorted background characters, but the misunderstood big bad wolf as well, who isn’t really bad, but simply misunderstood. He is only bad because society expects him to be that way.
It is fascinating to see how each of them interpret their wolf in their own way.
Reese’s hapless Todd the Toad seems to be the real bad guy who asks his best friend the wolf to collect overdue rent from the Three Little Pigs who make a living by collecting honey. Even he is sad yet likeable in his own way.
The cast shine in their various roles. Camille Pavlenko shines as the diva and depressed mama pig as well as Porketta, her vain yet insecure daughter. The audience helps build these characters’ characters by shouting out “You look beautiful” whenever Porketta asks “How do I look.” She builds the “beautiful” house of sticks as the audiences is asked to imagine sticks to toss to her.
Reese plays the lazy son, Hamly. The audience is asked to shout out “ Get it together” whenever he says “ I’ll do it later.” He’ll build the house of straw as the audience is asked to imagine they are picking straw an throwing it to him to use to build.
Kelly Malcolm’s budding psychologist Patty is the kid who keeps the family together, in addition to doing all of the work (collecting honey, getting groceries etc.) she is also asked to psychoanalyze the characters including the wolf. She also plays an adorable squirrel as one of her other characters. Ever the family minded pig, she’ll build the house of stone to accommodate her entire family.
As usual for a New West children’s show, there is plenty of running around, a lot of physical comedy and plenty of pork related puns. All’s well that ends well of course, the pigs get their new home, the big bad wolf undergoes a transformation and even Todd the Toad gets his back rent.
So it ends up being a fun way to spend an hour of your afternoon with the kids or on your own, if you want to see some fine Lethbridge bred talent on stage.
Three Little Pigs run at Sterndale Bennett Theatre on 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 2. Plans are also in the works to perform it in Southern Alberta schools.