A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Kids are going to love this, said one theatre-goer at last night's preview performance of Evolution Theatre's production of Charlotte's Web.
“And their parents,” said another patron who loved the story as a kid and had read it to her children.
The story of Wilbur the piglet who craves not just company but friendship while forever facing the prospect of conversion into pork is laced like streaky bacon with humour.
Clothed in pink overalls, pink ears, a curly tail and a delivery punctuated with piggy grunts, Bea Grant brings a likeable guilelessness to piglet Wilbur, a runt saved from John Arable's axe. (“A weakling makes trouble,” says Andrew Stevens' Arable with a gee-whiz, country American accent and era-appropriate (it's 1940) staidness.)
Wilbur is befriended by the farmer's teenage daughter, Fern Arable (Callie Stevens). Before long though the piglet is given to Homer and Edith Zuckerman (Ross Stevens and Karen Joice) to fatten up.
Alone in the Zuckermans' barn Wilbur encounters Charlotte the Spider (Danielle Siata) and soon meets other farmyard animals.
These include Arran Dunn's ruminative Ram and Beatrice Fawcett's dispassionate Lamb, Kate Gilmore and Grace Turnbull's gussied-up geese, and Fraser Grout's self-serving rat, Templeton.
Central to the story is, of course, Charlotte the spider, who Danielle Siata, back-lit in her glossy leather, eight-armed costume, plays with ethereal grace.
Fern visits Wilbur most days and chats with him and other farmyard animals.
While the play comfortably embraces the life and death reality of the farm (an earthiness the Gisborne show's audiences will have some familiarity with) each of the barnyard animal-actors has created a loveable, hilarious character, complete with intermittent animal noises.
When Wilbur again faces the prospect of the knife (“I don't like to bear baaaad news,” says Ram) Fern and the farmyard animals try to devise a plan to save his bacon.
Charlotte hits on the idea of spinning words in her web to amaze people — and that it does.
A win at the county fair would secure Wilbur's safety although he faces significant competition from arrogant Uncle Pig.
Robert Ferguson doesn't exactly ham it up but he is as relaxed in his role as the big pig as, say, an avuncular family member amusing children at a Christmas party.
For those who don't know the story, no spoiler will be given here. As Fern grows up she grows away from Wilbur who before long finds himself alone again. But with Charlotte's almost other-worldly legacy, and cooperation from Templeton, the ending is as happy as can be. Even so, you'll need tissues.
Co-directed by Charli Haskell and Nikki Henderson, with great costumes by Heidi Parkes (Gilmore and Turnbull's layered white costumes with yellow ribbons and garters, waggly tails and the occasional honk are definitely worth a gander), Dinna Myers lighting and stage design, the show's behind-the-scenes crew deserve applause as much as the actors.
Along with more experienced actors, who just get better and better, talented newcomers to the stage are sure to help Gisborne theatre thrive.
As Fern's sister, mischievous attention-seeker sister Avery, Leyla Fawcett is a natural as is Scarlett Fawcett who plays naive farm girl Lurvy with apparent ease.
As Martha Arable, Lidil Merlini grew in confidence as the show progressed, as did Joice.
Surprisingly enough, this production is Ross Stevens' first. He looked and sounded all the part of, say, a Lutheran pig farmer.
Although there are powerfully poignant moments in the play these are quickly leavened with laughs.
The script's inclusion of two story-tellers, played by Julie McPhail and Dave Henderson, is a canny device that will help children navigate a crucial sad part without dallying on it.
Charlotte's Web is well-timed for the school holidays and zings with the magic of theatre many will remember from their own childhoods. And that's no porkie.