Celebrating Pooh’s 70th With a ‘Marathon’

You may never have taken a frolic in the “Hundred Aker Woods” with Christopher Robin, Pooh and the rest of A.A. Milne’s memorable creations. Or you may be one of his legion fans, young and old.

Either way, do yourself a favor and celebrate the Bear of Very Little Brain’s 70th birthday at “The Winnie the Pooh Marathon,” a reading of the entire Pooh canon, at Every Picture Tells a Story on Sunday, by the world’s foremost Pooh interpreter, British actor Peter Dennis.

Dennis, whose one-man tour de force performance of Milne’s works, the award-winning “Bother!,” has won accolades on both sides of the Atlantic, will be covering the entire Pooh saga--79 poems and 20 stories--in five shows from noon to midnight.

“I’ll be reading every single word of the four books that A.A. Milne wrote between 1924 and 1928,” Dennis said.

“Until his voice gives out,” joked his wife, actress Diane Mercer.

Don’t expect anything remotely Disney-like. With book in hand, this silver-haired actor, the only one authorized by the Pooh Trust and the Milne Estate to perform the works on stage, captures the wistful resonances underlying Milne’s tales, using only body and voice with remarkable results. Inevitably, it is the adults in the audience who respond most keenly.

“All I do is read Milne’s works,” Dennis mused. “It’s the simplicity and economy of the writing that’s extraordinary. And it’s heartbreaking. And,” he added, “adult audiences sitting there never want it to end. . . . So much that’s in those stories was in their lives, and what wasn’t in their lives they wish had been.”

Although Dennis works frequently in American television, playing character roles from Sir Isaac Newton on “Star Trek: Voyager” to a paleontologist on “Friends,” his love for Milne, sparked when he discovered the author’s works at the age of 36, is a full-time passion, so much so that he and his wife celebrated Pooh’s actual 70th birthday on Oct. 14 with a candlelight reading for friends and “flew the Pooh flag from our balcony.”

“I wonder if anywhere else in the world anyone bothered to open a [Milne] book. I hope they did.”

What age should children be to be old enough to fully appreciate the show, which runs about an hour and three quarters?

“It depends on the child,” Diane Mercer said. “Children see it one way and adults another. Kids laugh at the jumping about bits; adults laugh at the incredibly wonderfully subtle bits. There are children of 8 and 9 who begin to get it.”

Both suggest that the first two shows would be best for children.

* “Winnie the Pooh Marathon,” Every Picture Tells a Story, 7525 Beverly Blvd., Sunday, noon, 2, 4:30, 8 and 10:30 p.m., $15 per child; $25 per adult--good for entire event. Reservations: (213) 932-6070.