News location:

Canberra Today 21°/25° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: Yucky gags delight young audience

Rhys Hekimian cooks up a potion, photo by Jordan Wallace
THIS Dracula really sucks… with some of the cutest zombies, ghouls and vampires you’re likely to encounter this side of Transylvania in this delightful school-holiday entertainment presented by Pied Piper Productions in the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

The witty script provides plenty to sink your fangs into, with all your favourite horror-story characters regurgitating the best lines from the worst horror stories. The songs channel Abba, Queen, The Rolling Stones, even Leonard Bernstein, and are performed to John Yoon’s keyboard accompaniment.

Director Nina Stevenson has assembled an engaging cast of young actors of varying skills and experience, including Brendan Kelly as Quasimodo, Dean Lowe-Carlus doubling as Dracula and Steroid Stan, Teagan Ricketts as Queen of the Night, Lexie Gorman as Shirley Holmes, Rhys Hekimian as Professor Moriarty,  Caitlin Davis as Vladimir, Tom Maloney, also doubling as Watson and Jagged Mick and Daniel Tedeschi in a scene-stealing turn as Carlotta.

Joining in the fun, Thompson Quan Wing has provided an appropriately ghoulish set complete with skeleton and coffins, and the simple, choreographed routines, devised by Kathryn Jones, cheekily poke fun at contemporary pop groups and talent shows while keeping the show moving along.  A little more confidence and attack ,which will come with more performances, will prevent some of the best lines being lost because of inexperienced delivery, but enough yucky gags remain to delight the young target audience who happily groaned and laughed in all the right places.

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Music

Cunio takes top job at NZ School of Music

Immediate past head of the ANU School of Music, Kim Cunio, is to become head of school at Te Kōki, the NZ School of Music, part of the Victoria University of Wellington, reports HELEN MUSA.

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews