I’ll admit, I was a bit terrified to attend Elephant and Piggie’s “We are in a Play!” Mostly because my toddler, lovingly called the Shark, had lived up to her animal Patronus and didn’t take a nap. For a 2pm show. I was prepared for a bloodbath, for wailing and gnashing of teeth reserved for tragedies like skinning her knee or being denied a second box of unicorn Lucky Charms at the grocery store. Instead, we encountered a delightful musical that didn’t just keep her attention, it commanded her attention and kept her rapt and bouncingly engaged for its whole hour.
It’s easy to see why Elephant and Piggie’s “We are in a Play!” has become a staple of the TYA DC theater scene, with its initial commission from the Kennedy Center in 2013 and three other productions (including this one) in the area. First, they are based on 3-time Caldecott Honor recipient Mo Willems’ immensely popular Elephant and Piggie series, though previous knowledge of the books is unnecessary. Both the script and the production tell clear stories that reflect the concerns of preschoolers like the Shark while embracing their surprising complication. The rollicking songs and excellent comedic timing of the cast are cherries on top.
Elephant and Piggie’s “We are in a Play!” closes October 20, 2019. Details and tickets
The plot of the play is a mashup of several Elephant and Piggie books, careening from a celebration of finding each other as best friends, to the excitement and worry of being invited to a party, to learning how to dance, to hurt, to receive forgiveness for breaking a toy, and on and on. Very much like living with the Shark, Elephant and Piggie bounce from big emotion to big emotion without much in the way of intricately laid plot or discernible purpose beyond immediate crisis or epiphany. In a play aimed at an adult audience, I would consider this a defect, but for an audience of preschoolers, this is as close to hypernaturalism as Annie Baker is for grownups.
This immediacy presents a challenge to the actors that the leads, Derrick Truby (Gerald the Elephant) and Karen Vincent (Piggie), are up to. Most of the play’s bits stem from an odd couple dynamic: Gerald the elephant being nervous and clingy while Piggie is freewheeling and game. But don’t let the archetypes fool you, Vincent and Truby do a great job of switching up being straight man and goof while finding surprising depth.
The environment and mood of the play are manifested by the Squirrelles (pronounced Squir-RELLES in a delightful nod to Motown groups), who have invited Elephant and Piggie to a party, but stick around to fill out the world of the play with song, dance, and laughter. Kelli Blackwell, Alex De Bard, and Da’Von Moody all find individually delightful ways to make comic contributions, but, as a group, they click in an incredible way. The strongest example of their unity is the use of eclectic instruments to create the illusion of larger-than-life motion: a Bloogle resonator for a rising object, a slide whistle for a falling object, and a flexatone for when it bounces. Some of the most fun bits come from Moody, who uses vocal dissonance to great comedic affect and has the Shark using a fake deep voice to try to get me to laugh.
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This excellent group effort speaks well for director Cara Gabriel, backed up by choreographer Dane Figueroa Edidi and music director Matthew Dohm. Dohm particularly does a great job of directing the cast to harmony and listenability in a raucous and mic-less situation. Edidi has a huge undertaking with the amount of movement packed into an hour. And while I wished for cleaner individual dancing, the excellence of the Squirelles’ group play evinces hard choreographic work. Gabriel does interesting directorial work for the farcical elements of the play, showing a great understanding of making a play dynamic by constantly rotating entrances and exits.
My most and least enjoyed parts of the play are one in the same: the participatory elements. It seems like there is a requirement for theater for young audiences to have some sort of group participatory element about 5/6 of the way through the show, perhaps to wake up sleepy bodies or occupy fidgety fingers. These are often a great distraction, but as executed in Elephant and Piggie, they don’t emphasize consent and tiered levels of enjoyment as much as participatory theater should. Group activities like coordinated dancing are framed as “have tos” which made the ever-contrary Shark shrink back from something that she might have otherwise enjoyed.
Her favorite part, as she is now constantly telling me, is “the clapping part.” “What do you like about it?” I ask her. “I like saying thanks for a goooooood show.” She’s right. It’s a good show. You should take your chance to see Elephant and Piggie, be in a play and maybe say thank you by clapping yourself.
Elephant & Piggie’s “We are in a Play!” based on the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems. Published by Hyperion Books for Children. Script and lyrics by Mo Willems. Music by Deborah Wicks La Puma. Directed by Cara Gabriel. Featuring Derrick Truby, Karen Vincent, Kelli Blackwell, Alex De Bard, and Da’Von Moody. Music Direction by Matthew Dohm . Choreography by Dane Figueroa Edidi . Costume Design by Jeannette Christensen . Scenic Design by Andrew Cohen . Lighting Design by Jason Arnold . Sound Design by Kevin Alexander . Stage Management by Kirsten E. Parker. Produced by Adventure Theare MTC. Reviewed by Alan Katz.
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