Lucky children in the upper North Island are being treated this month to the double whammy of Margaret Mahy stories and poems being performed with magic, music and grace, with some great visual effects, by Tim Bray Productions, who are also celebrating 25 years of performance as a company.  

This production links three Mahy stories and two or three poems through the characters of David and his mother, from The Witch in the Cherry Tree. All the action takes place in the same beautiful set – a tree, a plot of garden and a table and chairs – all transformed, with a bit of lighting magic and imagination for each portion of the play.

The performance opens with a strong performance from Maxwell Apse as young David, singing a charming setting of the poem ‘Magic’, and leads naturally into The Witch in the Cherry Tree in which David and his mother make cakes, which a passing witch tries to steal. Elizabeth Tierney as Mum has a light touch and a good line in good-humoured common sense.

The story kicks off when Lori Dungey’s Witch drops by, stealing the show, in her attempts to steal the cakes. Despite her witchy cape, hat and broomstick, this witch is more a bag lady than a crone and her endearing lust for the sweet treats is given full voice in a great solo. Some great comedy tussles between David and the witch ensue, even funnier when Mum gets in on the act and is almost persuaded to have her cakes tasted by an ‘expert’ out of a desire to win a new magic egg beater.

But David knows that if you allow a witch to come inside you’ll never get rid of her, so he valiantly tries to protect his house from an invasion. With the additions of Christine Whites’ lovely songs and Nick Garrett’s great musicianship in creating incidental music and sound effects, this is a superb version which enhances Mahy’s clever story with energy and fun.

Bray as director has adapted these separate pieces of writing into one whole production and it all holds together remarkably well.  Teirney and Apse go on to perform an up-beat song version of the poem ‘Footprints in the Snow’ and segue naturally into the story of A Lion in the Meadow which features a creature to rival the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz or any of the cast of Cats. Adam Burrell’s lion is a delight and, as with the witch, both Mahy and Bray work at making these alarming creatures quirky, fun and eccentric rather than terrifying, especially for the young audiences.  

The story Leaf Magic really has some leaf magic effects and ends with a charming transforming trick that cannot possibly be revealed, although there is a long section of leaf dancing and play which seems to be lacking in pace, just before this story unfolds, and children and adults in the audience begin to get restless.

In all this is a delightful show bringing audiences a quality theatrical experience from the genius of Mahy.

Tim Bray Productions are also to be commended for their Charity Seats Programme which invites patrons to sponsor theatre tickets to provide seats for disadvantaged or disabled children to enjoy the delights they have created. What a great idea.  

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Kids love TV. They just do. They love moving images and sound. They love iPads, cellphones and technology. The films they watch are becoming more and more realistic. In some ways I think that rather than enhancing their imagination, it’s restricting it.

Theatre, a play, requires imagination, active participation not just passive consumption. It’s something else, it’s not life, it’s not a film with special effects. It is a story, it requires minds to engage, imaginations to participate in the story. It’s something very different for a kid to experience. 

A Lion in the Meadow and other stories is a musical production by Tim Bray productions. This year Tim Bray celebrates 25 years of putting on plays and musicals for children. The production combines three of Margaret Mahy’s best loved stories: ‘The Witch in the Cherry Tree’, the top-billing ‘A Lion in the Meadow’ and the magical ‘Leaf Magic’. 

‘The Witch in the Cherry Tree’ is a story about a boy and his mother baking on a wet afternoon. ‘A Lion in the Meadow’ is a tale about a boy called David who believes there is a lion in his back garden, and ‘Leaf Magic’ is a story about a boy who wishes he has a dog. 

Maxwell Apse plays a wide eyed David in all three plays. He embodies the role with the sense of wonder and the playful cheekiness of an inquisitive child.  

Lori Dungey’s Witch makes a great entrance by hilariously crashing her broomstick into David’s garden. Dungey and her wibble-wobbly jaw is hugely expressive as a quintessential witch all children will recognise. Her high jinks with David are wickedly funny.

Dungey is a great slapstick actor which becomes more evident in her embodiment of Fish N Chips, a drunken sailor who is a cross between The Top Twins Ken and my great uncle Jono after a few drams.

Adults don’t always see what children see. There is a sadness, a sense of loss that comes through in the play. David’s Mother (Elizabeth Tierney) is lovely and caring but she has lost the window into a child’s world. Only children have that. Their imaginations are endless.

After the play I ask my daughter if David’s mother could see the Lion. 
“No” she replied.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because she doesn’t have an imagination so she can’t see,” she replied matter of factly.

Nick Garret’s simple and evocative live music is beautiful. It brings about a sense of nostalgia and melancholy and it knits the 3 stories together seamlessly.

It is always something special going to a kids play. Kids react with total honestly when they forget to be on their ‘best behaviour’. It’s a full body experience from smelly feet perched on the back of your chair, kids murmuring – then shouting when there’s no reaction – “He’s behind you, no down low, look out!”  Watching a play with a kid you feel their wonderment, you can see it on their faces. 

The set of flowers and fallen autumn leaves is simple, thematic, and functional for all three stories. The Cherry tree blooms in spring, autumn leaves fell, sunshine, rain thunder and lightning occur; the change of the seasons, time passing, childhood passing. There is a sense of how delicate and fleeting childhood is, how precious, and how magical. 

My 7-year-old daughter Alea read ‘A Lion in the Meadow’ when she was 5 and for about a year she was scared to go outside into the garden because there was a lion in the meadow. It was a friendly lion. But that didn’t matter.

When the tail of the Lion (Adam Burrell) flicks out onto the stage, you hear a collective intake of breath and the whispers start like a wildfire. Childhood is a time when anything’s possible. Lions might be in the meadow. “Adults know there are no Lions in New Zealand,” says Alea. “But kids don’t.”

There just isn’t enough live theatre for kids and it is great to see children from all backgrounds taking in the show. Tim Bray’s shows are accessible for the deaf and blind community too. This production is a treat for the children who attend, and a reminder for their adult companions: the magic of childhood is fleeting.

More from Alea (7):  
“‘A Lion in the Meadow’ was a very good play. The thing I really liked about it is that at the end a cute little dog with only one leg comes out of a box. Do you know how the boy got the dog? Well the boy wished that he had a dog. And he hated the leaf that was always flying around the garden and annoying him. He went to go to get his friend Fish and Chips. Because he knew that Fish and Chips would help him. The boy was right. Fish and Chips did help by caching the leaf. In a few days the boy wanted the leaf back. So Fish and Chips gave him back the leaf. It was a dog now. I would rate ‘A Lion in the Meadow’ 9 out of 10.”

A Lion in the Meadow and other stories will be travelling to Northland, and Tauranga and Hamilton in October. [To find out more about the tour, please click here.]

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer