Pinocchio

It was very sad to see such a poor version of this most wonderful story. The plot of a disobedient puppet-boy who gets his comeuppance through a series of extraordinary adventures and eventually becomes a real boy was turned into a boring and incomprehensible yarn. Characters were not properly introduced, actions were not adequately explained. Not once did the children laugh with the script, and certainly not once did they engage with the puppets. The delicacy of the blue fairy was reduced to a bluish and hideous wooden blob dangling above everyone's head, without anyone telling us that it was a magical being, except at the end. The moral tale about Pinocchio's nose growing as a result of his many fibs was not sufficiently exploited, and only once was his little nose exchanged for what suspiciously looked like a rolling pin. The script -described as "dark and witty"- was defective on most counts, with jokes added to attract the parents, but failing miserably ("madam, please sit beside that horrible person beside you... the fact that you are married to him should not matter..." or something like that, really quite awful...) In the end, kids had the last word. Our two children were not impressed, with the ten-year old falling asleep, and the five-year old covering his eyes with his hood. They were bored out of their wits, as were the adults... Of course, we greatly appreciated the hard and excellent work of the puppeteers, who made the puppets come amazingly alive. Shame that they had such a second-rate adaptation to guide them!