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‘Pooh Corner’ at puppet center
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “The House at Pooh Corner.” Through Dec. 11.
Our waddly hero has a sweet tooth. But he keeps telling himself it’s fine if he doesn’t get any fatter, and he doesn’t think he is. (Cue to rub himself on the tummy and look all sweet and clueless.)
His new friend, who sports a striped fur coat and makes a boing sound when he bounces, doesn’t like honey, but he likes everything else. Well, “everything but honey, acorns and thistles.” (Could this be the original finicky cat?)
As Owl tells us at the top of the Center for Puppetry Arts’ “The House at Pooh Corner,” this duo is so famous they need no introduction. Since the 1920s, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger have been among the most treasured creations in children’s literature. (And plenty of adults we know have been Pooh-heads since before they lost their baby teeth.)
It’s a testament to director Bobby Box’s delightful show that these characters have the hug appeal of plush animals and the comedic assurance of seasoned vaudevillians.
Chaplin might have learned something from the way straight man Pooh (Dina Shadwell) cocks his head when he first hears Tigger’s approach. And Tigger’s tablecloth tussle is the kind of idiot rampage that’s informed several generations’ worth of Hollywood slapstick and Saturday-morning cartoons. (Big cheer for puppeteer Michael Haverty for investing Tigger with such cockalorum.)
But the subtlest puppeteering comes from Caroline Masclet and Julie Dansby. At first, Masclet’s Piglet sounds as nervously squeaky as Butterfly McQueen, but eventually this pint-size ball of pinkness will come to wrinkle her noise dismissively at Tigger’s over-adrenalized tomfoolery. (Paging the Ritalin-relief squad.)
Dansby, for her part, turns sad-sack Eeyore into a world-weary donkey-philosophizer, whose domestic conundrum becomes the major plot point. “It’s getting cooooold and the wind is starting to bloooow,” says Eeyore with a languorous sigh that’s part bray, part yawn.
So, as Kenny Loggins once wrote, “Back to the days of Christopher Robin, back to the ways of Pooh.” “The House at Pooh Corner” is a sure-fire giggle-inducer for kids, a honey-oozing diversion for adults and a shoo-in for the cutest show in town.
THE 411: 10 and 11:30 a.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 3 p.m. Sundays. Through Dec. 11. $14. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org.
The verdict: Sweeter than hunny.
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By Doug Curlin
October 10, 2005 10:07 AM | Link to this
I saw Cotton Patch Gospel at the Outfit yesterday afternoon—another great show for Mr. Key and company!
However I must point something out in your review to be wrong, wrong, wrong. Mr. Key’s Angel does NOT have a “British” accent as you wrote. No, it’s a dead-on imitation of Billy Graham. (You must not have watched any BG Crusades on TV.)