[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Canton

[Tom Wachunas]

The Softer Side of a Cautionary Tale
By Tom Wachunas
    Having never read Roald Dahl’s 1964
fantasy,Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, my primary referent point regarding the story remains the 1971
film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory, starring the brilliant Gene Wilder in the title role of
the reclusive, complicated chocolatier. By comparison, the typically bizarre
Tim Burton film, from 2005 and featuring Johnny Depp as the wiley Wonka, was
largely an unmitigated disaster.
    Based
on the films alone, I never bought into the proposition that this was strictly
a “children’s story.” Like the iconic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons of the
1950s, I still think this narrative is, at its core, more the purview of adults
(well-adjusted and otherwise), and only pretends to be for kids.
    The current stage production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the
Canton Players Guild Theatre is a dramatization by Richard R.  George and directed here by Carrie Alexander
Spina. The show is clearly intended as “family entertainment,” well- tailored
to generously tickle younger folks’ fancies, and only lightly sprinkled with
the film versions’ headier, less innocent elements that seem so darkly
appealing to us grownups.
    That said, it’s a generally satisfying
theatrical experience. Surprisingly so, when considering that it’s presented in
the Guild’s smaller arena theater. You’d think that a fantasy spectacle of this
scale would necessarily require the much larger main stage. But the limited
dimensions of the performance space are creatively used in an expansive way,
enhanced by the simple but very inventive scenic and lighting design by Josh
Erichsen and Scott Sutton, respectively.
    Particularly clever is the manner in which
four of the five Golden Ticket winners are introduced. We watch a pre-recorded
video news cast on a large flat screen high above the set. Here’s where the
children are individually interviewed prior to their tour of Willy Wonka’s
factory, and where we first encounter their insufferably bratty and selfish
natures.
    Kudos
to the brilliantly directed young performers who clearly relish this chance to
credibly play badly-parented children who give new meaning to “acting out”: Elden
Mortensen as the gluttonous Augustus Gloop; Bella Marie Gill as Veruca Salt,
the spoiled-rotten, loud rich girl; Morgan Brown as the haughty, incessantly
gum-chomping Violet Beauregarde; and Jared Six playing Mike Teavee, hopelessly
addicted to television. The scenes of their hilarious comeuppances (Violet, for
example, gets turned into a blueberry, and Mike is morphed into a television
transmission) are made all the more delicious by the convincing hysterical
reactions portrayed by their flummoxed parents.
    In direct counterpoint to all this manic
mayhem is the endearing character of Charlie Bucket. To that role, Drake Spina
brings a quiet yet spunky energy, grounded in authentic curiosity and warmth,
as does J. Scotland Gallo in his role as Grandpa Joe.
     E.J.
Dubinsky’s enjoyable rendering of Willy Wonka is decidedly less enigmatic and
edgy than Gene Wilder’s, and imbued with a gentler, youthful accessibility.
He’s more the quirky wizard than the eccentric paranoid. And the six children
sporting candy-colored hair bobs, cavorting about in hippity-hop stutter step
as the Oompa Loompas, aren’t so weird or otherworldly as they are simply
adorable.
    The
difference between the film version and this sweet confection is the difference
between crunchy chocolate-covered nuts and creamy-smooth nougats.   
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Players Guild Theatre, 1001 Market Ave. N.,
Canton. Shows THROUGH Feb. 3, Fridays at 7p.m, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00
p.m. Tickets are $15, and $12 for age 17 and younger.  Box office at (330) 453 – 7617, or visit www.cantonplayersguildtheatre.com
    For other reviews and commentaries by Tom
Wachunas on the performing and visual arts in the greater Canton area, please
visit his blog, ARTWACH, at www.artwach.blogspot.com   
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