In 1835 Danish author Hans Christian Andersen created Thumbelina, a tiny girl who emerges from the flower of a barleycorn, is kidnapped from her walnut-shell cradle by a toad, sidesteps marriage proposals from the toad’s son and a bachelor mole, and eventually marries a tiny flower-fairy prince. Honolulu Theatre for Youth is presenting playwright Y York’s kinder and gentler version of “Thumbelina” this month at Tenney Theatre.
As York tells the story, Thumbelina isn’t kidnapped. She impishly runs away from home, encounters an assortment of colorful characters that include a toad and a mouse — and a fish with a mohawk — and eventually returns home to her mother with stories of her own to share.
“It’s a new adaptation,” HTY Artistic Director Eric Johnson acknowledges. “Thumbelina’s mother tells her stories when she is inside the flower, and when she is born into the world, she carries those stories with her.”
‘THUMBELINA’
Presented by Honolulu Theatre for Youth
>> Run dates: 7 p.m Fridays and 4:30 p.m. Saturdays through May 13
>> Where: Tenney Theatre, St. Andrew’s Cathedral
>> Cost: $20 general admission; $15 for seniors 61 and older; $10 everyone 18 and younger
>> Length of play: 55 minutes
>> Intermission: No
>> Age recommendation: 4 and older
>> What it’s about: Love, curiosity, the power of storytelling and a miniature child’s experiences encountering the world
>> Morals and messages: There is great power in storytelling.
>> Parental advisory: Nothing suggestive, nothing scary, no toilet humor, nothing to worry about.
>> Kid-pleaser aspects: Real-time, high-tech special effects — handcrafted puppets, live video projections and a “green screen” flying beetle — that create what Johnson describes as “a mix between an animated movie and a Victorian storybook coming to life before your eyes.”
>> Final comment: “One of the things that has made this story so sticky in the imaginations of so many is that it’s all about scale,” Johnson says. “‘What would it be like if I was the size of a flower and could hang out with a mouse?’ We’ve tried very hard to make it accessible to very small people.”
>> Info: 839-9885 or htyweb.org
