Sherman theatre, Cardiff
This stylish play packs a lot in and has strong performances but its darker nuances are smothered by whimsy
Performed and captioned in Welsh, English and some French, Petula is a coproduction between Wales’s two national theatre companies and August012, and follows the intergalactic adventure of 12-year-old Pwdin Evans. Catapulted into space by his javelin-throwing stepfather – who acquired supernatural strength in a gleefully grisly duck à l’orange sacrifice – Pwdin steals away from earthbound angst, parental squabbles and French homework, and instead goes searching for his missing cousin, Petula.
Directed by Mathilde López, and adapted and translated by Daf James from Fabrice Melquiot’s 2007 play Wanted Petula, it is a grotesque and absurd giddy fantasy from the outset. Partly a riff on The Little Prince, it similarly takes wild flights of fancy unencumbered by naturalistic logic.
At the Sherman theatre, Cardiff, until 19 March. Then touring until 8 April.
