The Ark
****
The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy, from Australian company Slingsby, is a masterclass in storytelling. It begins with a superfluous silent scene, in which the audience is summoned to attention, as a well-dressed gentleman sits back at his writing desk finishing his tea. We never learn anything about our hosts, except that they are wonderful raconteurs.
And, as every storyteller knows, a good story is all about atmosphere: the furnishings evoke Victorian colonial adventures, with pieces of luggage, packing cases, tea crates, a globe, the suggestion of a map upon the wall. Wendy Todd and Geoff Cobham's sepia- toned design cocoons us so comfortably it would be impossible for performers Stephen Sheehan, Sam McMahon and Rory Walker to lose our attention.
The show charts the journey of the eponymous Cheeseboy (yes, he’s made of cheese), who finds himself orphaned when his planet is hit by a meteorite, turning it into fondue. Cheeseboy manages to land on Earth, where he meets a pair of gypsies who do their best to love him and make him happy. Cheeseboy, however, pines for home and the mother and father he hopes to one day see again.
The absurdity hinted at in the play’s title lies in the telling rather than the story itself. It’s a moving study of grief, and Finegan Kruckemeyer’s writing achieves a fable-like quality, linking death to the passing of time, the moon waxing and waning, the tides turning (then not). This is a rite-of-passage play: Cheeseboy is a boy becoming a man.
Aimed at an eight-plus audience, Cheeseboy deals impressively with serious themes and inspires with its playful storytelling. An audience of schoolboys here gasp audibly at the way in which the theatre space is transformed again and again with simple props and shadow projections.
Maybe the real lesson here is that moments of sadness can be turned into great joy.
