A marvellous mix of drama, dance, music and puppetry: you will never forget this wonderful theatrical experience!
The Vanishing Elephant comes courtesy of Cahoots NI, a Belfast-based theatre company which is committed to creating productions of high artistic quality for children. Director Paul Bosco McEneaney has assembled a cast at the top of their game from across the world, which is apt for a global story.
Paul tasked award-winning writer Charles Wray with imagining the back story of the elephant made to vanish on a Broadway stage in 1918 by celebrated illusionist Harry Houdini. It is a thrilling tale of challenge and adventure but above all of the special bond between Janu and Opu, which time and distance cannot break.
As Opu, Adi Chugh is convincing both as a boisterous, affectionate young boy and ailing elderly man who crosses continents to re-connect with his elephant friend. Madhav Vasantha’s mahout, who believes that training involves the breaking of the elephant’s spirit, is portrayed with vigour. Terrance Fleming gives a strong performance as the circus trainer in the USA, who uses violence in the form of a hook to force Jenny to learn the unnatural tricks. You come to realise that both he and the elephant are oppressed. Maeve Smith’s Carole gives a real sense of moral ambivalence. She does not like seeing Jenny’s scars from training but enjoys the money she makes. I enjoyed James Grimm’s flamboyant but thin-skinned Houdini: he bristles when the elderly Opu refers to him as a stunt man.
Puppet designer and director Helen Foan spent a year creating the magnificent elephant puppets which depict the different stages of Janu’s life. Expert puppeteers move deftly and unobtrusively to animate the animals. It takes nine puppeteers to operate the final puppet, a full-sized Indian elephant! I can only describe the puppetry as sensational!
I was most impressed by the authentic elephant sounds.In a post-show Q and A session, puppeteer Iris Schmid, who works the trunk so expressively, explained that she and other puppeteers make these sounds. Getting elephant behaviour just right involved the watching of countless videos.
The Bengal setting of the early scenes is conjured up through poetic language and evocative music (a triumph for composer and sound designer Aoife Havanagh). Choreographer Jayachandran Palazhy, artistic director of the Attakari Centre for Movement Arts in Bangalore, is responsible for the amazing stylised movements and vibrant dances.
Janu, now renamed Jenny, is shipped to New York and criss-crosses the country as the main attraction in a circus. The circus scene introduced by Philippa O’ Hara’s lovely singing is colourful and full of action with acrobats, jugglers and clowns. Sabine Dargent’s costumes add to the big top atmosphere.
The Cahoots company has recently returned from a hugely successful tour of the United States. They performed on the same stage where Houdini made the elephant disappear, at the New Victory Theatre, Broadway. This show reminds us that theatre is the greatest magic trick of all, creating illusion that feels so real.
At one hour forty minutes including an interval, The Vanishing Elephant would appeal to the whole family. At the performance I attended the audience was enthralled. The many children watching were utterly captivated. I won’t spoil the ending but I found it intensely moving. Were I to apply three Netflix-type descriptors to this production, they would be: ‘Emotional. Spectacular. Spell-binding.’ Stars? Five!
There are performances of The Vanishing Elephant on the following dates:
Saturday 7 June 7pm; Sunday 8 June 3.30pm.
Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by visiting the website at www.buxton-operahouse.org.uk , or calling the box office on 01298 72190.