The Young King

Holding cards designating them as subjects from the extremities of the kingdom, the young audience enters through a series of dimly lit passages where they are offered chocolate and make paper crowns. One representative from each ‘region’ is given a gift to present when they meet the Young Prince. Bemused, they wait, the only sound their curious whispering and the constant ticking of a clock.

Eventually, light shining through an open curtain and the soft notes of a piano beckon them into the enchanted theatre of storytelling. Muted lights in low-hanging shades softly illuminate the small thrust stage and the slightly tiered wooden benches that surround it. The Young Prince welcomes his audience and their gifts of a pearl, gold cloth and rubies that lead into the gentle story that has been told and re-told since Oscar Wilde released it in his second volume of children’s stories in 1891.

Does it withstand the test of 125 years? Can it compete with screen violence and ninjas and superheroes?

In the hands of Slingsby and its clever creative team, it does – and it can. Performers Tim Overton and Jacqy Phillips, with musician Quincy Grant, take the young audience a kingdom where wealth is esteemed, art not valued and where ordinary people work tediously and dangerously for the rich and powerful.

Between changing circles of light, and using puppets, an amazing depiction of a deep sea diver, shuttles of a loom and small props and torches, all of which emerge from hidden crevices, drawers and cupboards in two sturdy sets that flank the stage, Overton and Phillips conjure the story of a pitiless king, a banished princess, a stolen child, and a young prince brought up by a simple goatherd until summoned back to the throne by his aging grandfather.

Taken in by the glitter and splendour, the boy, now 16, longs for the gold cloth of his royal robe, the pearls on his sceptre and the rubies in his crown until the night before his coronation … when his dreams of hard working weavers and miners and the cruel death of a pearl diver show him the wrongness of greed.

Overton is beguilingly convincing as the Young King. He creates a gentle relationship with the audience establishing a trust that buffets the more threatening moments in his story – many of which are peopled by Phillips. Moving out of the role of storyteller, she becomes the intimidating Old King and the menacing and witch-like Avarice who refuses to share a grain of corn with Death. In the role of Death, Overton himself transforms into a much more sinister character, using small torches to create unusual images.

Awakened to the wrongs around him the Young King refuses the wealthy trappings of a coronation, dresses himself in the rough spun garments of the goat herd and with his stick and crown of twigs leads his people, Christ-like in a shaft of light, through the opening doors of the castle into the forest beyond.

This production is supported by a veritable ‘cast of thousands’! Behind in Adelaide are the original Slingsby creative team: playwright Nicki Bloom; designer Wendy Todd whose imagination and ingenuity is evident in the hidden complexity of the set; and lighting designer Geoff Cobham who has created an atmosphere that is intimate and eerie at the same time. There are also the five musicians that recorded the parts of Quincy’s score that supports his piano. As well there are those who ‘bump in’ the set, a Front of House crew of ten Royal Courtiers, the light and sound operators and the backstage crew. 

Thus, this seemingly simple production is really a very intricate piece of a theatre that uses a plethora of dramatic forms to bring to life the characters Oscar Wilde created 125 years ago and reinforce the moral that is as valid today as it was then.

Carol Wimmer

Photographer: Andy Rasheed