52 STOREY TREEHOUSE

52 Storey Treehouse, CDP Theatre Producers at the Playhouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 20 September-4 October 2015. Return season: January 2016. Photography by Branco Gaica, above: Terry (Drew Livingston) with Andy (James Elliot); right: Jill (Sophie Kesteven) with a giant carrot.

REVIEW by JAMES DAYHEW (age 10)

To date the 52 Storey Treehouse  is my favourite of all the Treehouse  books, written by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton. So I was happy to see they made a play of it, written by Richard Tulloch and the have stuck to the book very well. In fact of all the plays based on Andy and Terry’s adventures I think this one was the funniest and stuck closest to the book. 

When I sat in my seat waiting for the show to start I saw a big wooden box in the middle of the stage. It turned out this was the main prop for the whole play. It was not only the Treehouse but it also converted into Jill’s House, to Mr Bignose’s office, to a dungeon and last of all to a tram plus everything else in between. Wow, how amazing to be able to do that and Mark Thompson managed it. 

I thought the actors, with the help of the director Liesel Badorrek did a good job of bringing the book to life. Especially Drew Livingston as Terry and James Elliott as Andy. I loved the opening scene with the Ninja Snails. The Disguise-O-Matic 5000 was also brought to life very well and I thought the portable version was a clever idea for the play. The funny surprise of the caterpillar was great too, nothing quite like a hungry caterpillar. 

The character of Jill and Vegetable Patty were played by Sophie Kesteven which she brought life really well. Johnny Nasser played numerous roles throughout the play including Edward Puppethands, the Caterpillar, Prince Potato and Bill the postman. He was very funny as all of them. 

I saw the 52 Storey Treehouse  at the Sydney Opera House, which was fun. So if you can see it in Sydney it is playing at the Playhouse until October 4. If you miss out these school holidays it will be back in January 2016. 

I recommend it for 10-year-olds and under. There were many laughs from the audience especially from the younger members. It is quite an adventure.