Cal High drama’s recent performances of “James and the Giant Peach” really brought out the child in every audience member.
The theater was packed for nearly all four performances April 17-20, and rightly so. This play was not one to be missed.
“James and the Giant Peach,” is the classic Roald Dahl story about an orphaned boy, James (Ashton May), who lives with his two evil aunts (Kimya Shokri and Abbey Radermacher).
A creepy old guy (Tristan Tuohy) notices this boy’s misery and gives him magic items to turn his life around.
But when James drops the magic items to the ground around his peach tree, he begins the journey of a lifetime in the resulting giant peach and its earthly inhabitants.
The play was wonderfully acted. The excitable ladybug (Sarah Glugatch) was extraordinarily peppy, the centipede “pest” (Bryce Woodward) was enthusiastically self-absorbed and the blind earthworm (Alex Bru) was charmingly depressing. All of the actors reacted flawlessly off each other, and the banter was hilarious to watch.
The play also incorporated a good use of audience involvement. While the peach was bouncing down the giant hill, the narrators (Alex Bringer and Emily Curley) portrayed the action by throwing an orange beach ball into the audience to bounce around.
At another point, “cloudmen,” played by extras, threw ping-pong balls at the audience to simulate a hailstorm. It was all in good fun and thoroughly enjoyable.
The set design was amazing, with a giant peach actually constructed for sole purposes of the play. A scaffolding was also built to allow the actors to poke their heads above the peach. They used a projector as well, with graphics to change the background.
The graphics were admittedly quite low quality, and messed with the mood a bit, but they did help the audience picture the scene better.
Costumes and makeup also played a great role in this play. Because “James and the Giant Peach” signifies magic and fantasy, all of the characters had to look out of this world, and that they did.
The spider (Courtney Haynes) was dressed in all black lace and a fishnet top, while the old green grasshopper’s (Jon Akkawi) face was entirely painted green with wrinkles for age.
In addition, the glowworm (Avery Massa) was totally pink, complete with a tutu.
All in all, the play was very well done and worth watching. The acting was great, the set was magnificent, the costumes were surreal, and every character had a distinct personality.
The only criticism I have about the production is the projected background was a bit out of place and some of the lines weren’t delivered properly.
But these minor mishaps hardly distracted from the entire performance . I give “James and the Giant Peach” 3.5 out of 4 Grizzly paws.
