House Theatre Presents PINOCCHIO Review– banishing Disney and reinventing a classic

It took a bit of persuasion to pry the audience away from the lobby areas and into their seats. But after that, House Theatre took full command. “This is the original social media,” proclaims Nathan Allen, co-founder and artistic director, as he instructs everyone to turn off their phones. The performance that follows is proof positive.

Mining PINOCCHIO’s original source

If you’re part of the U.S. population that knows PINOCCHIO mostly from the Disney movie, this production will put those animated images to rest. House Theatre, which specializes in storytelling via interdisciplinary stagecraft, mines the original source. Italian author Carlo Collodi wrote PINOCCHIO as a series for a children’s weekly magazine in 1881. Episodic and dark, PINOCCHIO really was like 19^th century social media, using an illustrated narrative to convey messages to a wide audience.

Most memorable about House Theatre’s take on the puppet’s path from innocence to maturity is the puppet itself. Crafted by Chicago Puppet Studio, Pinocchio comes to life when Geppetto (played androgynously by Molly Brennan) pries his head from a charred piece of tree trunk. Once the rest of his body is fashioned, actor Sean Garratt manipulates and vocalizes the wooden boy so unobtrusively, the focus always stays on Pinocchio.

During physically demanding moments, other actors join with Garratt to make Pinocchio run, leap, dance and sing. House Theatre lives up to its reputation for creating magic through movement in these scenes. Thanks to the cast led by director Chris Mathews and choreographer Kasey Foster, they’re as fluid and agile as ballet.

House Theatre adaptation connects with today

Adapted by company members Joseph Steakley and Ben Lobpries, PINOCCHIO reinvents Collodi’s story as a parable for 21^st century Americans. Geppetto, a natural loner, worries that Pinocchio will attract unwanted attention as a freakish hybrid of wooden toy and human being. Although unwilling to call Pinocchio his son, Geppetto is nonetheless afraid the authorities will take him away. The curtains must stay drawn and Pinocchio must not dance or sing. Is this a commentary on undocumented immigrants avoiding arrest? Or on disabled individuals becoming isolated from the community? Or people with non-conforming gender identities struggling to find their place? All such connections ran through this viewer’s mind.

Confined to Geppetto’s shop, Pinocchio consumes every book on the shelf, becoming so intellectually frustrated that he escapes to the local school. There he endures another societal ill – bullying. “You’re one of those home-schooled titmice,” sneers one boy. Pinocchio is a new kid who’s both too different and too bright for comfort. But Romeo, a conventionally human student, doesn’t mesh with the classroom zeitgeist any better than Pinocchio and the two become friends.

Inspired rather than discouraged, Pinocchio embarks on many adventures. There is schoolteacher Miss Penny who regards nature as “an impulse that must be restrained,” the wise Blue Fairy in the forest and traveling musicians who teach him to perform. For this viewer, PINOCCHIO gets weighed down by too many storylines that distract from Pinocchio and Geppetto’s journey to create their own unique family. But the script keeps the show on swift footsteps with its humor. The laughs emerge effortlessly, a reminder that the serious business of growing up is much easier when it also includes a healthy dose of funny business.

Cast:

Molly Brennan, Sean Garratt, Kevin Stangler, Christine Mayland Perkins, Mike Mazzocca, Karissa Murrell Myers, Tina Muñoz Pandya, Carley Cornelius, Omer Abbas Salem, Brandon Rivera

Production:

Ben Lobpries & Joseph Steakey (adaptors), Chris Mathews (director), Kasey Foster (choreographer), Joe Schermoly (scenic designer), Anna Wooden (costumer designer), Alexander Ridgers (lighting designer), Kevin O’Donnell (sound designer), Chicago Puppet Studios (puppet design), Jamie Karas (props designer), Brian DesGranges (stage manager)