What happens to a four-year old girl, lost in the African jungle, raised by a group of chimpanzees, and returned caged to her South Wales Valleys mother ten years later?
For all the world a naked chimp herself, Anne is unable to talk or understand human behaviour. Such is the basic situation of this highly imaginative and thought-provoking play written and directed by Greg Cullen for Hijinx Theatre.
The widowed mother (Nicola Branson) with the help of a neighbour (Mark Howell East) strives to humanise her daughter, a painful but sometimes hilarious process. This is complicated still further by the intrusion homosexual buglar (Mark Bernard), whom Anne (Lucy Rivers) flls in love with.
All this throws into focus many social questions -treatment of animals, ecology, homophobia, cruelty to children, homelessness, the nature of love. If that sounds overloaded with worthiness, the acting abilities of the quartet also made it amusing, provocative and at times, almost moving.
On occassions the group became throwbacks to their not so distant cousins, the chimpanzees, which clearly delighted the youthful audience packed into the Sir Anthony Hopklins Studio Theatre.
Special credit must therefore go to chimping instructor Leila Crerar for making these scenes (and the character of Anne) so concvincing rather than ridiculous.
The music and songs were composed by Paula Gardiner, the set designed by Claire Leadbeater. |
