Mermaid Theatre’s ‘Just So Stories’ Are a Different Theatrical Animal

‘Tis the season for children’s theater. Fa la la la la, la la la la.

Every year, parents pick through an avalanche of holiday pageants and kid’s plays sweeter than gumdrops to find a show that can enchant the little ones without boring the grown-ups stiff.

With its unusual blend of puppetry, live music and entrancing tales, the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia’s staging of Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories” may offer entertainment with enough substance to satisfy all ages. The troupe will present four of Kipling’s best-loved tales tonight at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and Sunday at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.

In “Just So Stories,” Kipling weaves the answers to some of children’s questions about nature with gentle morality lessons.

In “The Elephant’s Child,” a curious young pachyderm drives the jungle coconuts as he tries to learn how he got his trunk. “The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo” tells of the kangaroo whose appeal to the gods for acceptance and popularity leads to misfortune. “The Cat That Walked by Himself” illustrates how the ingenious cat cozied up to man without losing his independence, and “How the Camel Got His Hump” shows the way the camel acquired his most prominent feature with some instruction on the value of industry over laziness.

In each tale, music and live action is combined with some of the most engaging puppets this side of Kermit the Frog. According to company manager Lynda Clark, the action is performed by the “Just So” puppets--which range from about 2 1/2 to more than 7 feet high. These include a combination of “rod” puppets (in which the character is animated by an actor with small, slender rods) and one of the four actors who appear as puppets dressed in wicker and raffia masks worn over a body of hand-woven cloth dyed with berries and other Nova Scotia flora.

“We use simple means and simple materials to create something gorgeous,” Clark said in a recent phone interview.

The live music for the show features the xylophone, bells and gongs, bridging the stories and adding an Eastern rhythm to the performance.

“We try to stay away from the idea that children’s theater has to be in bright, primary colors” and “lots of big laughs and slipping on banana peels.”

“The ‘Just So Stories’ are much more monochromatic,” she said. “More than anything else, the visual sense you get comes from the textures.”

After all, she said, “what good is children’s theater if adults are bored? It means there is no depth, no layers. If grown-ups get nothing out of it, then it’s not of much lasting value to children either.”

The Mermaid Theatre is based in Windsor, a smallish town about an hour outside Halifax in the province of Nova Scotia. The group was originally formed in 1972 by Welsh actress Evelyn Garbary, designer Tom Miller and businesswoman Sara Lee Lewis with the intent to present high-quality children’s theater to schoolchildren.

Under Miller’s influence, the troupe’s storytelling was soon revolving around puppetry, “both for its flexibility and mythical connotations,” Clark said. In addition to “Just So,” their repertoire also includes versions of “Peter and the Wolf,” an original script called “The Red Ball,” and an adaptation of a Canadian children’s story, “Anna’s Pet.”

School tours are still the company’s main activity, but its territory has broadened considerably through the years. With backing from the Canada Council, a government body that provides funding for the performing arts, the company regularly performs in all 10 Canadian provinces. The company has also performed in tours of the United States, Mexico, Japan, Australia, England and Wales.

Stops on their tours have included the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and London’s Royal Court. The troupe is scheduled to perform at the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival in 1992.

The troupe began presenting its “Just So Stories” in 1983. The production was designed by Miller and adapted by Graham Whitehead, who succeeded Garbary as artistic director.

“Just So” was an instant success, Clark said. The company performed a six-week run at the Smithsonian and was soon invited to perform for the National Showcase of Performing Arts for Children, a trade show in which children’s programs are performed for booking representatives across the country.

“That was really our big break,” Clark said. “Everybody loved it right from the beginning.”

According to Clark, Miller and Whitehead selected “Just So Stories” not only for their value as children’s literature but also for their theatricality.

“The Kipling stories are almost like folk tales--they have the singsong quality of folk legend,” Clark said. “There’s a certain timeless quality, and in a way, a certain ‘placeless’ quality too. There are elephants, snakes, kangaroos, but they’re not specifically set in Australia or India or the Far East.

“Really, it’s a ‘once upon a time’ kind of place.”

The Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia presents its adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories” tonight at 7 in the Robert B. Moore Theatre at Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for children 12 and younger and for senior citizens. Call (714) 432-5880. The show will also be performed at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the McKinney Theatre at Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. All seats are $4. For information, call (714) 582-4656.