Have you ever watched an old Disney movie and found it way more interesting as a 20-something college student? Right off the bat, “Fantasia” comes to mind. There’s just something about seeing through adult eyes all those trippy, seminude half-horse characters that completely entrance children that makes it totally worth watching a kid’s film again. And that’s not to mention all the jokes and innuendos you suddenly understand.
If you were a fan of the wildly popular “Bunnicula” books as a child and you feel like taking a walk down memory lane, check out “Bunnicula” this week at the Overture Center’s Playhouse. Adapted by the Children’s Theater of Madison from Deborah and James Howe’s best-selling children’s book, “Bunnicula” tells the story of what happens when the Monroe family brings home a mysterious – and murderous – baby bunny.
Told from the viewpoint of the impossibly personified family dog and cat duo, the play opens with life as usual in the Monroe family home. But after one of the Monroe’s young sons finds a baby bunny at a “Dracula” movie, strange things start happening in the house: Closed doors mysteriously open, vegetables punctured with fangs are sucked white and the bunny keeps disappearing from its locked cage. As any loyal family pet duo would do, Harold (Nick Barsuli) and Chester (Victoria Kemnetz) set out to solve the mystery and save the Monroe family from the evil baby bunny.
On the surface, yes, it’s a children’s play. But a heavy veil of irony over surprisingly dark undertones makes the play more than just tolerable for a tired parent or babysitter. As Chester and Harold work to solve the vampire mystery, they plot to kill the bunny by dousing it with water, starving it to death and putting a “steak” through its heart – the meat kind. The writing is smart and tight, and much of the dark humor about zombies and the impending apocalypse goes right over the delighted children’s heads.
As the cat and dog duo, Barsuli and Kemnetz entertain the small children in the audience with playful, animated dance numbers but rarely go beyond the shallow surface of their characters.
Stealing the show – and laying the irony on heavily – are Mr. and Mrs. Monroe, played by Jake Penner (whom you may recognize from the title role of Broom Street Theater’s “Lamentable Tragedie of Scott Walker”) and Abby Stevens. A delightfully perky, semi-robotic parental pair, Mr. and Mrs. Monroe are larger-than-life parents who sporadically sing sarcasm-laden lessons to their sons about the perks of having pets and the dangers of buying non-organic.
“The Monroes are playing off of everyone’s memories of a 1950s television family,” Penner said after the show’s premiere Saturday. “But, you know, we’ve grown culturally to a point where we no longer see that as ideal. So we’ve taken that stereotype, pushed it as far as we could go and made it really ironic.”
Here he’s referring to the 1950s sitcom-esque canned laughter and big cheesy smiles the Monroes dole out upon every entrance, as well as Mrs. Monroe’s overtly hyperbolized housewife sexuality.
“But in some ways, the play is a bit tragic,” Penner continued. “My character, Mr. Monroe, is supposed to be the father-knows-best kind of guy, but that’s not what he is at all – in fact, he’s really blind to who his children are becoming.”
Deep stuff. But it’s not all tragedy.
“As a college student myself, I love Bunnicula’s evil, nighttime alter ego because it gives us a chance to wink at the audience and say, ‘here we are being dark.’ But how dark can it really get when you’ve got an adorable seven-year-old girl on stage wearing a onesie and a pair of bunny ears”?
Part of the 2011-2012 season at the Children’s Theater of Madison, “Bunnicula” is just one production in a unique lineup featuring “A Christmas Carol” earlier this year as well as the upcoming “Lord of the Flies.” In support of our local dogs, cats and baby vampire bunnies, CTM is donating $2 per ticket sold for “Bunnicula” to the Dane County Humane Society.
“Bunnicula” runs until Feb. 19 at the Playhouse at the Overture Center. Tickets range from $15-24 and can be purchased at www.overturecenter.com.
