Mermaid Theatre Tours With ‘Just So Stories’

The respected Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia made a rare Southland tour stop this weekend, bringing a striking production of Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories” to audiences in Orange County and Caltech’s Ramo Auditorium.

Adapted and directed by Graham Whitehead, “How the Camel Got His Hump,” “The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo,” “The Elephant’s Child” and “The Cat Who Walked by Himself” were brought to exuberant life by the four-member troupe.

Tom Miller’s eye-catching organic design--nubby fabrics, woven mats and pillars and his over-sized masks and puppets crafted from basketry, rope, fur and feathers--plus Steven Naylor’s original music played on gourds, drums and xylophones are just right for a show set “when the world was so new and all.”

The cast--Sheldon Davis, Rhonda McLean and Kenneth Wilson-Harrington--whether wearing costumes or manipulating puppets, uses deft body language to convey humor and well-observed characteristics of a whole gallery of animals including a monkey, hippo, ostrich, giraffe and snake, as well as the title characters.

Diane Pitblado’s narration, occasionally rushed a bit at Caltech to compete with very young, noisy audience members, remained true to Kipling’s whimsical language.

Old Man Kangaroo’s “pride is inordinate,” Yellow Dog Dingo grins “like a coal-scuttle,” the camel is “most ‘scrutiating idle,” the elephant child is filled with “ ‘satiable curtiosity” and the cat “walks by his wild lone.”

The Mermaid Theatre has been performing in Canada and internationally since 1972. Here’s hoping it will return soon to the Southland.