EMILY EYEFINGER
EMILY EYEFINGER - Monkey Baa Theatre Company at Darlinq Quarter, Terrace 3, 1-25 Harbour Street, Darling Harbour. To 14 July 2012.
The Monkey Baa mob are settling into its fabulous new HQ at Darling Harbour and for the July school holidays they're running a return season of the popular production from 2011 about the girl with the amazing forefinger. Adapted from Duncan Ball's books about her, Emily Eyefinger is a show that raises questions in the foyer beforehand. These include, "what if I had an eye on my finger and could look up my own nose?" And a lot more besides.
Monkey Baa's theatre is perfectly placed for a great day out for kids and adults. Not only go to see the show but also you can enjoy the brilliant playground right outside the front door, which Felicity reckons is the best she's been to. You could visit the Chinese Garden, have lunch in a Chinatown food court, or a yumptious gelato - Monkey Baa's next-door neighbour. It's just great and we can't wait for their next show. Meanwhile, we - Felicity, almost 9 and James almost 7, plus godmother and grandmother - really enjoyed this one which goes a bit like this...
Emily (Dannielle Jackson) has had time to think about the good and bad things about having an extremely unusual finger and she's fed up with it. For a start, everyone seems more interested in her finger than in her and for another start, awful people such as the idiotic super-villain Arthur Crim (Douglas Hansell) want to have it for themselves. As this seems to involve a chain saw and a giant mouse trap, Emily isn't all that impressed. And as if that's not enough of a headache, Emily's best friend Malcolm (Christopher Childs-Maidment) is suffering his own personal form of mouse plague: his father the famous mouseologist, Professor Mousefinger (Tim McGarry). The Prof and Emily's aunt Olympia (Julia Davis) a famous archaeologist, have got wind of the ancient map the children found (because it's smelly) and are hot to trot in search of the lost tomb and treasure of Tutankamouse.
Emily and Malcolm are press-ganged into going on the hunt with Aunt Olympia and Professor Mousefinger and the journey involves deep dark jungle, a hair-raising trip down a river full of rapids - and all the time with Arthur Crim and his dunderhead sidekick Doug (McGarry again) in not very efficient pursuit.
In the end, the two youngsters teach the adults a thing a two about doing the right thing and overcoming the frights and obstacles of ancient curses and lost causes. Emily learns to live with her third eye and even scaredycat Malcolm discovers his inner Dangermouse. Douglas Hansell is a wonderfully evil and silly Arthur Crim, while Dannielle Jackson makes a terrific alter ego for the girls in the audience - spunky and resourceful. Personally, I could have done with one or two more fart jokes - those already in the show were extremely popular with most of the audience. It's a fun and colourful adventure with one really good big "Eeeeek!" fright.
