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Peach Boy - The Adventures of Momotaro

Published Friday 6 November 2009 at 16:35 by Andrew Blades

With the festive season imminent, theatre troupes are dusting off the red slippers and magic carpets in preparation for their family shows - or in Oxfordshire Theatre Company’s case, their kotos and kimonos.

Peach Boy is a traditional Japanese fairytale with all the recognisable elements of Western folk myths - stand-offs between an everyman hero and his ghoulish adversaries, talking animals, and a concluding moral about remembering your roots. However, it is not remotely cliched. It would be all too easy to fall into Eastern stereotypes or pantomime staples, but Richard Hurford’s adaptation is sensitive, dexterous and nicely surreal when appropriate.

Gillian Cally, Jonathan Metcalf and Elliott Quinn sing their way through Andrew Dodge’s catchy score and seem to relish their multiple roles as pheasants, moon gods and forest ogres. Quinn in particular makes a winning hero of Momotaro, whose traditional Japanese outlook on life and adventure nevertheless carries some amusing inflections of Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride.

Peach Boy, then, is one of those productions that should appeal to the parents as much as the children - thoughtful in parts, wacky in others, it is a nicely balanced piece and comes recommended.

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