PUSS IN BOOTS WOWS OUTOPIA

(Written by Delayne, theatre critic
Photographs by Tori Landau, for more photos see http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/5274224719/)

Puss in Boots - the latest offering from FOUtlights (the OUtopia amateur dramatics society), was a wonderful start to the final week before Christmas.

The final scene of the panto - from left to right: Sahiz De Vaye the king, Tarquin the troll, Whiny Aimhouse the fairy godmother, Harry the miller’s son, Turner the page, Puss (aka Princess Raunchia)

A feature of this very enjoyable production was the eternal theme of ‘nothing is what is seems’ rather appropriate since the SL world is literally a world of its own. Thus, normally in panto we have a principal boy played by a girl in a tight fitting costume, fish net tights and high boots whilst a feisty female plays the female lead. In this production Princess Raunchia (played by Elsbeth Biedermann) cleverly amalgamated both elements by being definitely female including the fish net tights! Titiana Haystack played Harry, the youngest of the miller’s sons who had inherited only three bags of flour and cat upon his father’s death. Again, panto convention was ignored as Titiana’s avatar favoured an obese miller’s son who sported a beard which worked well as a good contrast to Princess Raunchia.

Good and evil are always represented in panto usually via Fairy Queens and Demon King type entities though the cast chose not to follow ‘panto’s’ unwritten rule of Good entering from stage right and Evil from stage left. Puss in Boots, also changed the rules by making the fairy godmother (Whiny Aimhouse) into the bad fairy too. This role was also played by Elsbeth Beidermann who courageously stepped into the part at short notice due to Elsa Dickens being unable to perform on the night. All Evil panto characters either end up being redeemed or destroyed. So in this time honoured tradition the godmother’s fate was sealed by her unwittingly signing away her own fate (and losing her magical powers) when she signed false marriage papers. This allowed Turner (the page) played by Kered Rickena, to come into his own as the ‘dues ex machina’ character (literally the ‘god out of the machine’ so favoured in Roman comedy). So, at the end of the play Turner tidies up all the loose ends (rather appropriate given Kered’s role in OUtopia as the prim warden!).

The world of panto (like many of Shakespeare’s comedies) thrives on mistaken identities and rebirth in another form. Thus, Douglas (‘a game bird’) played by Kickaha Wolfenhaut, was the unfortunate rook destined to repeatedly become pie fillings for the king’s delight by being reborn into various forms e.g. bunny rabbit and finally a multicoloured haddock. The humorous dialogue between the cat (played by Hennamono Morpork) and the rook delighted the audience who saw only too well that the naïve rook was about to become dinner. Pantos have always entertained their audiences by showing the actors skill at quick changes and Kickaha’s changes were well thought out though (as we noticed at the end of panto party) Kickaha’s final change did leave him sporting a haddock’s tail!

On SL where the text is all (and what the text doesn’t say then the avatar must visually show) it was lovely to see that Hatshepsut Linette, who played the king, had given serious consideration as to how he should be portrayed. One wondered whether her interpretation was influenced by Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat’s use of a pharaoh based on the all-time king of pop – Elvis. Hatshepsut’s creation of the Elvis avatar (complete with rotund paunch) and his signature all white costume was a deft stroke and an absolute audience pleaser.

Congratulations to the writers of Puss in Boots (who at the moment we believe to be that world famous and prolific writer ‘Anon’). The dialogue abounded in puns including those within the character’s names, thus ‘Sahiz De Vaye’ appears to being a play on the phrase “c’est la vie” as the name of the king who cared little about life except food . No panto would be complete without the double entrendres (and there were plenty of those) and witty references that would be understood by their audience (in this case there were ample OU world, OUtopia and SL world references to go around).

Audience participation is a key feature of panto. The audience happily contributed ‘he’s behind you’ at just the right place in the production as well as taking pleasure in being designated the Marquis of Carapace’s serfs and confirming that they were working on the Marquis’ land. (At this point the audience contributed to the panto’s humour as only one person managed to avoid the typo’s that infected the rest of the audience in the heat of the moment and correctly named his ‘master’ as the Marquis of Carapace. Of all the responses perhaps Xara’s was the most inventive with her “carspace guy”.) By the later scenes there was some enjoyable bandinage between the audience and the panto characters too. Like others in the audience, one didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the text with too many audience comments but it was apparent that the humour was so good that few could resist inserting the odd comment and there were lots of ‘lol’.

All pantos rely on the unexpected and the odd hint was given in the text that maybe Harry, puss’s master was not actually that attracted to Princess Raunchia and that perhaps his tastes lay elsewhere. So, in the final scene we could look forward to the civil union between Harry and Tarquin (an excellent troll avatar wielding a giant axe in an exuberantly camp manner) played by Rocky Joans.

There were two notable costumes. The fairy godmother went for the girly floral look complete with outlandish pink wand along with very attractive pink and white organza gown). Harry, once he ‘came out of the closet’, wore a very handsome Georgian style dark green suit complete with very tight tights - very appropriate for his new self! Various sets were displayed from the rural idyllic (as the background for the demise of the rook) to the finale where the set emphasised the fairy tale nature of the panto by displaying a little girl’s version of the exterior of a castle that we would expect Barbie or My Little Pony to own - bright pink with fairy-tale turrets.

So, at last we reach the puss – who was very well played by Hennamono Morpork. The reliance on text enabled a joke that would not have been possible in RL. Thus, the audience was quite happily reading the pronunciation of Puss (as in the word ‘cat’) only to find it revealed later in the panto that it was actually Puss (as in pustular infected ulcers caused by his ill-fitting boots!). In true form the panto finished with an unusual twist – Turner, the lowly page, being raised to high estate by the Puss. (It turns out that Puss was actually the king’s daughter Princess Raunchia who had been bespelled by the evil Whiny Aimhouse. At last all the jokes about the princess being into drink and cigarettes that littered the start of the play make sense once it was revealed that the evil fairy godmother had taken the princess’s identity many years ago.) So, at the end, the princess declared her undying love for Turner. The page seemed quite keen on the idea too (which may have been a bit of a surprise to Xara who was killing herself laughing in the audience!).

Puss in Boots did raise issues of just how one effectively translates theatre onto the SL platform. The production relied on a HUD which failed in the last scene, however, the cast quickly and seamlessly rose to the challenge by inserting their character’s name before each piece of dialogue. Song and dance are always a feature of a panto and Puss in Boots finished with the cast enjoying a bit of River Dance.

All in all, Puss in Boots (directed by Eshala Tabacznyk and Kickaha Wolfenhaut) was a very enjoyable and funny panto and no doubt the audience is already looking forward to next year’s production.

Cast
Hennamono Morpork - Puss (a cat)
Titiana Haystack - Harry (a miller's son)
Hatshepsut Linette - Sahiz De Vaye (a king)
Elsbeth Biedermann - Raunchia (a princess)
Kered Rickena - Turner (a page)
Rocky Joans - Tarquin (aTroll)
Kickaha Wolfenhaut - Douglas (a game bird)

Special guest appearance:
Elsa Dickins - Whiny Aimhouse (a fairy godmother)