Theatre criticism about characters and costumes, but also Pringles and stuff the reviewer yelled at the cast.
The Worm is aimed at theatre-goers aged six and up, so The Spinoff sent Emma, aged eight, to review the production with Veronica, aged quite old. Their subsequent conversation over drinks (wine for Veronica, “water freshly from the fridge please” for Emma) veers from characters and costumes to Pringles and why Emma was yelling at the cast.
Veronica: The Worm, written by Carl and Peter Bland, gets straight into the action, with the opening scene introducing us to a little worm (played by Puka Moeau) and his mum (Alison Quigan) living in Shaggy’s garden. We only just had time to admire the terrific pink rolls of the worms’ costumes when a giant bird beak appeared stage left and snaffled up the mum. What did you think of that opening, Emma?
Emma: It was pretty scary. It must have been really horrible for the worm. It must have been really lonely after the bird took her. I was sorry for the worm.
Veronica: I agree – no worm wants to be left alone underground without their mum, especially when the little worm’s dad had disappeared some time earlier. But that bold start was the beginning of the worm’s quest. He vows to travel up above ground to rescue his mum, and once he’s got her back, he says he’ll find his dad too. But things get hairy. Throughout his journey, the worm has to dodge Shaggy’s spade, which sporadically slices through his dirt home, and a hungry spider. His true nemesis, however, is a blind, rapping, narcissistic rat (Shauntelle Jones), who variously threatens to suck him up “like spaghetti” and chomp on “worm sashimi”.
Emma, I noticed that when the rat came on stage for the first time, you said “she’s cool”, and at one point when she’d been off stage for a while and then came back on, you yelled out, “I missed you!”
Emma: When I first saw her I thought she was going to be a good rat, but she wasn’t. I still thought she was really cool. I really liked her glasses and her walking stick and also she was hilarious, like, when she made a song about a lightbulb dying all about her. When I said I missed her, I meant I missed her hilariousness.
Veronica: You loved the rat. I loved watching the always brilliant Alison Quigan’s movement and facial expressions transform as she moved between her roles of the mother worm and the snail. But back to that rat. She wanted to eat everything – cockroaches, dung beetles and definitely the little worm. Lucky the little worm met an old, wise worm (Ahi Karunaharan) – who had himself been attacked by the rat some time ago – and wanted to help the little worm get to the surface to rescue his mother. During their journey, the two worms came into the audience and came right up to you, didn’t they?
Emma: Yes, I offered them one of my Pringles. The old worm took one but the younger worm didn’t want one.
Veronica: We won’t give away the rest of the plot, Emma, but we should say what we thought of The Worm overall. I thought this version of the production, directed by Ben Crowder and Carl Bland, was a pacey 65 minutes, offering quirky characters and sharp humour – the funniest part for me was when the beautifully clueless plant bulb (Brett O’Gorman) made friends with an old light bulb buried in the garden. The costumes (by Elizabeth Whiting and Denise Hosty), were superb, from the snail’s shell to the old worm pushing his belongings around in a supermarket trolley, after sustaining rat-related trauma. The sound was epic for a tiny set-up, careening from the keyboard to the trumpet, and it brought the garden alive.
Emma, If you had to tell other children about the play using only three words, what would they be?
Emma: It was awesome.
The Worm, presented by Nightsong with PAANZ, is on at Te Pou Theatre, Henderson, Auckland until April 11, The PumpHouse, Takapuna, Auckland, April 14-19 and Māngere Arts Centre – Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, April 25.
