Jackson Lacey’s “The Prince, the Wolf and the Firebird” opened Friday to retell a classic children’s story.
This was a highly comical production that appealed and was appropriate for all ages. Audience members were taken on an epic journey across all of Russia to save the Firebird, rescue multiple princesses and, in the end, get the girl and the kingdom.
Prince Ivan (Isaac Reimer) was sent out by his father King Vyslav (Joshua Hamilton) to retrieve the Firebird and, if successful, would be given half of the kingdom then and the other half when the king passed on.
However, as the audience later learns, this is easier said than done due to Prince Ivan’s two dastardly older brothers who are out to see him ruined and dead. With the help of his noble mule, the Wolf and Princess Moushka, Prince Ivan is able to survive and battle in the most amusing of sword fights.
Although starting off a tad bit slow, the show quickly picked up and got the audience laughing in their seats. Erik Hohnke and James Walrod played the evil yet comedic Prince’s Dimitri and Vasili. This dangerous duo was everything that a pair of squabbling siblings should be. Between the name calling and fighting you could not ask for a more realistic pair of brothers who dislike each other.
Isaac Reimer, Krissi Hardy (Moushka) and Derek Ridge (the Wolf) were the perfect trio of unlikely heroes. Between Prince Ivan’s youth, Moushka’s bizarreness and the Wolf being plain out “terrifying,” these three offered up one joke after another.
Every single person in this production added to the overall humor of it. The guards offered cute, little moments of running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Non-verbal humor was thrown in by the multiple horses that always let their owners know when they were and were not happy.
The costumes in this show were inspired by Ivan Bilibin’s illustrations and were beautifully done. Colors ranging from bright reds and yellows to subdue grays and browns mixed extremely well to offer up that storybook quality. However, none of the designs were as glowing as the Firebird’s, who looked like the earthly wonder she was. Joanna Motowski, who played the Firebird, floated gracefully across the stage offering a sweet, caring voice and pleading for Prince Ivan’s help.
If one is searching for a comedy, the cast of Firebird put on a solid performance that will keep the audience laughing from start to finish. “Firebird” runs this Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.
