Presented by Dan Markley, Alan J. Schuster, Pomegranate Arts, Shockheaded Media Ltd., Harriet Newman Leve, Sonny Everett, Michael Skipper, True Love Productions, Dede Harris/Morton Swinsky, casting by David Caparelliotis, at the Little Shubert Theatre, 422 W. 42 St., NYC. Opened Feb. 22 for an open run.
Britain has sent us Monty Python's Flying Circus, Flanders and Swann, and "Beyond the Fringe." Now Cultural Industry and the West Yorkshire Playhouse have returned with "Shockheaded Peter," which played a limited, sold-out engagement at the New Victory Theater in 1999. Definitely an evening that can be described as "a unique theatrical experience," this is not a show for everyone.
A combination of Victorian melodrama and Grand Guignol, "Shockheaded Peter" is based on Heinrich Hoffman's "The Struwwelpeter," a 19th-century collection of cautionary tales about bad children. Created by members of Cultural Industry and directed by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott, the show is an almost entirely sung series of 11 music-hall sketches. The music and lyrics are by Martyn Jacques, with the music performed live by the Tiger Lillies (Adrian Huge, Adrian Stout, and Jacques).
The tales concern disobedient children who receive their comeuppance for bad behavior—all of them: Harriet, who played with fire; Conrad, who sucked his thumb; Augustus, who would not eat his soup; Frederick, who tore the wings off flies; and so on. Using puppetry, special effects, and makeup, "Shockheaded Peter" recounts the gruesome punishment of each child, fingers snipped off by a pair of giant scissors being just one example.
Led by Julian Bleach as emcee (who intones when he first appears that he is the greatest actor in the world), with its songs sung in a falsetto voice by Jacques, the evening revels in its gore and grotesqueries. Jacques' falsetto, though, makes the words hard to understand. The music all sounds the same, and each story becomes predictable after the pattern is set.
Anthony Cairns and Tamzin Griffin, in heavy makeup as the various parents, are suitably horrifying and horrified in alternate doses. The production design by Crouch and Graeme Gilmour and the costumes by Kevin Pollard are witty. Gilmour and Rebekah Wild assist with the weird puppets and special effects.