Reveiw: From Brat to BFF

Prince Brat and the Whipping Boy entertains both youngsters and the adults who accompany them. The play is based on the Newbery Award-winning book by the same name and adapted for stage by the author, Sid Fleischman. It is in performances now through January 20th at the Des Moines Playhouse.

Fleischman not only entertains with his play, he also teaches about theatre. As the play begins, the cast fans out along the aisles and the stage front to shake hands with audience members and to thank them for coming. After the actors gather on stage, the balladeer (Brenton M. Brown) introduces them and the roles they play. Then it is on with the show. There is a fifteen minute intermission halfway through the hour-long play and that is almost the only time the action even slows down.

Prince Brat, aka Prince Horace, is played by Alex Spenceri, a fifth grader. This is his first role at the Playhouse but he has acted in other plays in Ankeny and in Altoona. The prince’s whipping boy, Jemmy, is portrayed by Kellen Schneider, a seventh grader. In addition to other acting roles at the Playhouse, Schneider has helped build set pieces as a volunteer. Spenceri and Schneider are on stage for the vast majority of the play. They deserve praise for that alone but their performances were also good. Spenceri was quite believable in the role of the spoiled royal who becomes a youngster trailing after a wiser albeit only slightly older sibling-equivalent, and then a self-confident boy heading into adulthood. Schneider does not have quite the equivalent believability as a long-suffering stand-in for the prince’s punishment but, given his age, that is understandable and the way it should be. His performance, as is the intent of the role, is more reminiscent of an older brother or friend.

In the audience, a young boy in the early years of elementary school hid his face when Petunia the Performing Bear (Joe Struss) was dancing at court or menacing the villains. After the play, though, he ended up facing the bear so he could get an autograph of all the performers. The broad smile he had on his face, a happiness that was widely reflected in other children’s smiles, told how much he enjoyed the show.

The top praise for this show has to go to Fleischman. It is a well-written play that serves as an excellent learning tool. Credit also has to be given to John Engerman who wrote the music that made the balladeer’s performance possible.

Some of the actors I enjoyed in other roles at the Playhouse are in Prince Brat and the Whipping Boy. There is no single performance that stands out as either exceptionally good or noticeably lacking in some quality. There is simply a pleasing consistency with a few ignorable hiccoughs.

In closing, I’ll give a quick nod to Director Ron Ziegler and to the ever-insightful Scenic Designer Kevin Shelby. There’s no room to thank everybody else individually.

M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.