Entertainment and message for all ages

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 26

Entertainment and message for all ages

by

HANS PETROVIC)

No matter what your age, if you want to experience an exciting multi-media, audio-visual show, make sure that you and your children see “Roadshow,” at the James Hay Theatre. I have no doubts about the positive impact of this one-hour performance for both its message about road safety and as just sheer, surprising entertainment. To make sure that people go, it may be best to talk about its non-stop, energetic presentation to the theatregoing public.

In the almost-black theatre, the screens come to life with a film of a young couple drinking too much at a party, leaving, an argument about whether anyone should drive home and, of course, then careening down the highway in their deadly vehicle.

There is the crushing impact, in full, stereophonic sound ... at which precise moment, the lights go on onstage to reVeal two bodies flying from a real wrecked car — which had come from seemingly nowhere.

The school children who saw this at the matinee that I went to were suitably impressed, as if they were

witnessing the aftermath of a three-dimensional car crash — instead of just a film version.

Almost immediately afterwards, a motor-cycle drives on stage with friends of those involved in the accident.

This scene, with the powerful cycle engine, certainly affected the kids and had them whistling and hollering for further action. What proved fascinating, though, from the psychological point of view, was how the managed to keep its mainly young audience swinging from absolute, shocked silence to juvenile, “ho-ho” humour. In other words, the viewers were sufficiently captivated by the rapid run of events to leave them open to accept whatever happened next — be it sheer entertainment, fast violence or the main message of the whole show.

“Roadshow,” including its sounds and very good songs (each with more than just a subliminal message), does get across well by, somehow, melding the fascinating with the painful. For example, Death, in a black Darth Vader outfit, looms big on the stage sev-

eral times and leaves little doubt that he is out to take his toll. In the best dance sequence, “One in Five,” which makes the statistical point that one out of five New Zealanders is killed or seriously injured in a motor accident, Death veers between five dancers until he decides to impale his dislocated steering wheel in one of them. There are many other aspects to the “Roadshow” which deserve mention, such as the interjection by a psychologist (Elizabeth Moody) and an advertising man (Tony Wahren) that the show was not properly presenting its case. Their differing views, of course, add much more to the whole point; as do those of the traffic officer (Peter Elliott) and doctor (Paul Sonne). While continuing the praise I must also mention John Densem’s excellent lyrics and music in five songs — “What a Party,” “You Make Me Feel So Pretty,” “Why," “Wrecker Man” and “What’s Done is Done” — which show an incredible level of pertinence and intelligence.