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This Mouse Will Make You Roar With Laughter "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," Oregon Children's Theatre's new show based on the popular kids book by Laura Joffe Numeroff, uses a fun gimmick. A 6-for-9 actor (Matt Haynes) plays an 8-year-old boy, and a 5-foot-3 actress (Kerry Ryan) plays his unruly visitor, an uninvited mouse. The gag is, they're on a giant kitchen set where Haynes comes up to the refrigerator handle, a carton of milk is about 6 feet tall, and climbing up to the sink on giant cupboard drawers is an ordeal for both. The story, in Jody Davidson's very clever stage adaptation, involves a boy who is thrilled because he's being left alone by parents and aunties to read his comic book "Jungle Man." But the minute they depart, a mischievous mouse invades his spaces, asks for a cookie, then milk, then a straw for the milk, then a mirror to see if he's got a milk moustache, on ad infinitum. And talk about nonstop energy! This mouse has attention deficit disorder to the max, an ego bigger than his ears, and a tendency to make a mess. Predictable story? Yes. Clever visual gag? Yup. But, wait. You'll remember Ryan long after all else is forgotten. Hers is a performance to shout about. She embodies the part, makes it bigger than it is, with an expression for every thought, word and deed. Trained as a clown, a natural mime and recently a member of Imago Theatre for three years, Ryan is amazing. The other highlight of the hour-long show for kids 4 and older is Rodolpho Ortega's original musical score that greets us in the lobby. The colorful set is by Jeff Seats, and Stan Foote directs. |