Theatre Review: Toys, The Basement

Jacque Drew acts as a teddy bear in the Basement’s Christmas show Toys. Photo / The Aucklander

The Basement theatre ushers in the festive season with a bout of wild revelry that probably has more in common with pagan saturnalia than traditional Christmas celebrations.

A series of boisterous monologues provides an energising workout for a rotating cast of 40 actors which mixes seasoned journeymen with enthusiastic novices and a smattering of theatrical luminaries.

Taking its cue from Toy Story the play builds an imaginary world out of the flotsam and jetsam of a child's bedroom and projects the familiar neuroses of our times on to a random assortment of discarded toys.

But no one should make the mistake of believing the show is suitable for children.

Writers Natalie Medlock and Dan Musgrove delight in the brazen adolescent naughtiness of uttering outrageous obscenities that have no place in polite society.

On the other hand much of the writing is witty and inventive, particularly when giving voice to some of the more unusual toys that have filled the Christmas stockings of generation-Y.

The Viewmaster monologue gives an intriguing insight into the world view of a plastic device for displaying 3-D images from paper reels.

Millen Baird's nicely understated performance brings the character to life with an amusing visual display and a touching anxiety about how his stimulating educational function has been supplanted by video-game devices that do not have the child's best interests at heart.

Harry McNaughton delivers bouncy physical theatre as an inflatable red ball who lives in constant fear of deflation and pushes the boundaries of audience involvement when he requires mouth-to-valve resuscitation.

The air-headed Barbie was a tad predictable but captures the empty narcissism of celebrity culture in her vicious interactions with Share-Smile-Becky - a well-meaning but sadly unpopular attempt to include a paraplegic role model in the Barbie family.

The industrial origin of toys is cleverly satirised when Gareth Reeves' diabolical Jack-in-the-box and Yvette Parsons' tormented teddy revert to their mother tongue of Taiwanese in an explosive dispute about the fate of their owner.

The mayhem is brought to a fitting finale with Ian Hughes' finely judged performance as a Michael Jackson figurine who leads a raucous but surprisingly moving chorus of Feed the World.

What: Toys

Where: The Basement

When: Until December 18