THE PRINCESS and the PEA. Written and directed by Savannah Steyn. Musical direction: Lara Basson. Producer: Faeron Wheeler. Masque Theatre.
SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews
Against a Table Mountain Range backdrop, director Savannah Steyn’s The Princess and the Pea script spun Hans Christian Anderson’s 1835 fantasy into a make-believe, modern, Cape Town-centred musical.
Unlike Anderson, Steyn names her delightful princess – Anika (Sydney de Klerk). She is so petite and sensitive, unsurprisingly she feels uncomfortable sleeping on a pea – despite lying on 15 mattresses.
Steyn tells her story through a whole bunch of extra-ordinary characters, including seven narrators, to drive the action, fun and games, singing and dancing forward.
Musical Director Lara Basson’s well-chosen songs are carefully matched to Steyn’s synopsis. So too does Jason Meyer’s energetic, foot-stompig, twisting and turning choreography dovetail with Basson’s music selections.
Happily ever after
The show begins with present-time librarian Eli (Geoffrey Muller) and Stefan (Richard Thomas) chatting about books. Stefan, costumed in a VOC styled, blue velvet justaucorps, Eli, Amina (Ruth-Anne Lake – finder of Anika’s pea), King Henrik (Tanya Smith), Bert (Wayne Ronne – Gentleman-in-Waiting hoping to usurp the King) and Pepper (Clarenda van der Walt) form the musical’s backbone. The narrators take on various roles add variety, colour and keep momentum.
No fairy tale is worth telling without a wicked witch’s cauldron brewing magic potions. A gruesome cauldron cooks food, which all but poisons Cape Town’s locals, until Princess Anika casts a spell to stew up delicious edible food for all the hungry locals to eat.
Typical of fairy stories, The Princess and the Pea ends happily with everyone (including the audience) acting out and singing the ever-popular “Waka Waka”.
What: The Princess and the Pea
Where and when: The Masque, Muizenberg from 12 December 2025 to 11 January 2026
Tickets: Quicket
WS
