NZ Comedy Festival - The Hunting of the Snark

Reviewed by John Smythe, 9 May 2007

When asked if The Hunting of the Snark embodied an allegory, a hidden moral or political satire, Lewis Carroll's answer was always, "I don't know." He might also have deflected reflectively by paraphrasing his Humpty Dumpty's riposte from Alice Through The Looking Glass: "It means whatever you choose it to mean - nothing more, nothing less."

"The 'Snark' is indefinable and represents the search for meaning itself," the Playground Collective declares, cleverly pulling focus from the uniquely human compulsion that has driven countless attempts to interpret the work since it was published in 1876. Their show, they add, is "loosely based on Lewis Carroll's famous nonsense poem."

Carroll's characters and story structure remain intact, his whimsical and beautifully crafted words do feature from time to time, and aspects are added that largely extend the quest. For example, Boots - the one character (apart from the Snark) not illustrated in the original edition - is emphatically fleshed out by Oliver Cox as a US Army Vietnam Vet, grossing out on sentiment in the wake of the carnage he has helped to cause, while eating a banana.

Not that scholarship is ignored. The book's dedication to Gertrude Chataway - Charles ('Lewis Carroll') Dodgson's most important child friend after Alice Liddell - and the theory that the sad clown-like Baker character represents the author himself, precipitates a splendid device: it is Gertrude who drives this telling of the tale.

The opening tableau of apparently lifeless and shipwrecked characters, strewn about a stage adorned with strips of ink-splattered newspapers and bits of luggage, suggests a rougher 'Landing' than Carroll describes (where the Bellman 'landed his crew with care / Supporting each man on the top of the tide / By a finger entwined in his hair.") This is the sight that greets Gertrude, played with innocent self-possession by Phyllisophia JasonSmith, and a multi-tweed-jacketed, bowler-hatted, middle-aged, melancholic man: Dodgson himself. Their close, trusting friendship is instantly clear without a word being uttered.

When she prevails on him to play out her favourite story once more - and the castaway characters leap into life: "Just the place for a Snark!" - Dodgson takes the role of the Baker and Gertrude introduces each 'Fit' (there are 8), repeating in wondrous anticipation:

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.

Max Hardy brings great pathos to the Dodgson/Baker role. In 'Fit the Third: The Baker's Tale' he relishes the opportunity to speak Carroll's text untrammelled and - as directed by Robin Kerr and Eli Kent (credited as such in a media release but not in the programme) - marks the crucial moment when, as a "beamish nephew", he heeded his uncle's warning to beware of the day,

"If your Snark be a Boojum! For then
You will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And never be met with again!"

Later, in 'Fit the sixth: The Barrister's Dream' - a surreal court room scene in which everyone wears stockings over their faces - Hardy flips to an impressive aggressive energy as the defender of a pig charged with deserting his sty, bewildering Hayden Frost's pin-striped Barrister who, in his waking persona, has been an impeccably-played insufferable snob.

The look of Eli Kent's Bellman, the gruff expedition leader, may owe something to Tintin's friend Captain Haddock. Kent barks his commands, dismisses storytelling puffery and propels the meaningless progress with great energy and style, marred only by a tendency to talk too fast, given his articulation is hampered by placing his voice too far back in his throat. (He's not the only one, which leads me to wonder if this talented, spirited and clearly dedicated troupe includes vocal exercises and warm-ups in its process. Would any of them play any other rigorous sport without ensuring they were match fit and well warmed up for each game?)

Robin Kerr is clear and concise as the straw boatered Butcher, posing a moral dilemma when he reveals he is only able to kill beavers, given there is only one Beaver (Oliver Cox again) on board. I defy anyone to argue that Carroll meant nothing by sending them off down separate but converging tacks then uniting them forever in a teacher-pupil bond. The mathematical equation that leads them to LOVE is ingeniously distilled and touchingly performed in this adaptation.

Miriam Clark's slick, big-spending Banker also pulls off a cautionary tale - not present in the original poem - by dismissing the lower class Billiard Marker (perfectly pitched by Uther Dean) in the quest for riches, only to find the treasure chest empty and her very survival, threatened by the savagely snapping Bandersnatch, to be entirely dependent on the BM's goodwill.

Kirsty Baxter's amazing articulated and bright eye-wired puppets - the Jubjub, Jabberwocky and child, and Bandersnatch - are creations worthy of any International Festival of the Arts. Given the constraints required at BATS when sharing the space with another production, the production values - including Thomas O'Brien's dynamic lighting design, which adds much throughout to the texture, mood and dramatic light and shade - are well placed and managed.

Georgina Thitheridge completes this excellent ensemble cast as a vampish Bonnet Maker and Patrick Watman provides music throughout, stepping forward to evoke Bob Dylan, presumably as the man who brought deeper levels of meaning, if sometimes obscure, to 1960s pop.

Although I would have liked to hear the Baker's "laughter and glee" at thinking he'd found the Snark, before he calls back to his friends, "It's a Boo-", the bright white light that he vanishes into is has a powerful dramatic effect. My only suggestion here would be to delay the final blackout until just before the final two words - "you see" - for fear that the earlier timing could inspire the audience to applaud before the punchline is delivered.

The Playground Collective was formed to "to provide the next stepping stone for young actors, designers, and musicians who have been through the Young and Hungry festival at BATS theatre - or something like it [e.g. summer Shakespeare] - but are still just as hungry as ever."

Despite the extra stresses of 'devising' this adaptation and its production by idealistic egalitarian principles, The Hunting of the Snark is a splendid debut production that bites at the heels of more established ensembles with its fresh creative energy. It certainly deserves a return season.

ENDS

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