June 14, 2006
By Thuli Ntuli
MEMBERS of the audience – young and old – squealed with delight as the familiar "parp parp" of a little yellow car announced the long-awaited arrival of Noddy in Toyland.
Based on Enid Blyton's much-loved Toyland character, David Wood's More Adventures of Noddy is on at the People's Theatre at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre complex until 5 August.
The cast of Noddy and the Great Tootle, currently on at the People's Theatre
The play is split into two acts – Noddy and the Noah's Ark and Noddy and the Great Tootle – with children's theatre stalwarts Jill Gerard and Keith Smith directing.
An interactive experience, the play encourages children to converse with the characters or sing along to the easy tunes, including a hearty rendition of the Funky Monkey song. It aims to teach the importance of friendship and life skills in an imaginative way.
In the first act, Noddy and his friends have to try to solve the mystery of missing money needed to save the ark and Big Ears' missing washing. In this, they learn about loyalty, honesty and teamwork.
The usual cast of characters put in an appearance: Big Ears, played by Hein van Zyl; Bumpy Dog, played by Johny Klein; Sly, the mischievous goblin, played by Ryan Flynn; and the hilarious Mr Plod the policeman. Enslin Botha creates much merriment with his round-tummied caricature of the gruff, but kind Mr Plod.
In the second act, the Great Tootle, appears, promising to perform magic for Noddy and his friends. He beguiles everyone with a few tricks, including turning a red cloth blue. This is greeted with howls of delight from the audience, who like Noddy, wanted more.
The Great Tootle has a green pennywhistle that makes everyone start dancing. Even Mr Plod falls under the spell, and his body shakes as if he has fleas. Naughty Tubby Bear, played by Ntsepa Pitjeng, showed just what a good dancer he is.
Things get out of hand, and Noddy lands up with a pair of big ears. He has to enlist the help of the young audience to sort things out, reversing all the magic spells.
Like all good stories, everything ends happily, and even adults were imitating some of the idiosyncrasies of the Toyland characters after the show.
More Adventures of Noddy, which is one hour and 45 minutes in length, with a 20-minute interval, is on at the People's Theatre until 5 August.
Weekday performances are at 9am and 11am, while on Saturdays and public and school holidays the show is at 10.30am and 2.30pm.
Tickets are R70 for non-members, R45 for kids club members, and R60 for anyone accompanying audience members. There are special prices for groups of learners, with R40 per learner and one complementary ticket for an educator per 20 learners.
Bookings can be made at Computicket or at the People's Theatre on 011 403 1563.
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