By BRUCE DENNILL
Disney’s Aladdin Jr / Directed by Jill Girard / Peoples Theatre, Joburg Theatre, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
One of the many challenges of children’s theatre is fitting epic stories and locations into a relatively smaller space, and Grant Knottenbelt’s clever use of repeated and layered Moorish arches to create both nooks in which different parts of the action can take place and apparent depth and scale gives this production of Aladdin Jr a head start the moment the curtains open.
Raymond Skinner playing the lead role is another foundational strength of the piece as, along with plenty of experience in children’s theatre, he is the whole leading man package, with looks, charisma, fluid movement and vocals that make him the ‘diamond in the rough’ that his character is required to be in the story.
As Jafar, Sean McGrath’s costume includes a set of stilts (expertly controlled throughout) that give the evil grand vizier an even more threating, looming presence than is suggested by his sneering, snarling voice and consistently corrupt agendas. Khosi Mkhonza is a radiant, strong Jasmine, Luciano Zuppa adds a bit of audience management (saying to a cell phone user, “Ooh, turn that light off; it’s interfering with my magic”) to his energetic take on the Genie, and Joelle McGrath and Katlego Nche occupy opposite ends of the cunning spectrum as Jafar’s bird companion Iago and the sultan respectively.
Many of the jokes aimed at older audience members flew straight over the heads of the mostly very young crowd in the performance under review, but the performers note the blank space and where a response should be and quickly move on. The youngsters in the cast, gaining valuable knowledge and experience in this production, largely have a bit of the stiffness that comes with not fully occupying their roles yet, but as the next generation of stage stars, this is an incredibly important opportunity for development. And for kids in the audience, meeting the adult cast afterwards when they come out to pose for pics in full costume likely has a similarly positive effect, leaving them with a positive, happy feeling about theatre and coming back to another show sometime soon.
