Imaginative production delivers excellent encore performances

When Brush Theatre first brought its flagship production, Doodle POP, to Winnipeg in 2022, the South Korean company was an unknown entity locally.

Not anymore: with its third visit to the Manitoba Theatre for Young People in five years underway, the highly imaginative troupe has scribbled its way into the memories of a generation of theatregoers.

While adult audiences might not appreciate a professional theatre company programming similar shows with such frequency, MTYP hasn’t hesitated to extend return invitations to Brush, which blends miming, clowning, drawing and dazzling projections into unique and approachable stage concoctions, driven by participation from a rapt, ever-changing audience.

A kid only gets one chance to see their first theatre performance, and Doodle POP is just about as fun and engaging an introductory experience one can dream up.

Soundtracked by an audio whiz (Yesung Lee), a live keyboardist (Suin Yoo) and a percussionist playing an electric kit (Yegwang Kim), Doodle POP is an hour of pure energy that flows freely from scene to scene, with every action jolted to life by impermanent markers and the flickering light bulbs of imaginative LCD projection.

Our leaders through this journey of creativity are Woogie (Hyunki Jung) and Boogie (Sojeong Ahn or Solji Park), who, like their band, are dressed in identical outfits: white button-down shirts, black suspenders, black trousers and black high-top sneakers.

Before Woogie and Boogie show off their own artistic skills on the production’s centrepiece — an erasable whiteboard where line drawings combine with preprogrammed video to thrilling effect — the duo leaps into the crowd with a pair of handheld dry-erase boards, asking several kids to collaborate on doodles of their faces. In the front row, a boy adds an ear; in the fifteenth, with two swoops, a girl adds Woogie’s eyebrows.

The audience teaches the stars, and vice versa, that drawing doesn’t have to be a solo activity, that creativity is given strength and energy through the power of sharing.

What ensues over the next hour is a production that will remind millennial parents — and probably boomer grandparents — of Neil Buchanan’s long-running television series Art Attack, which wrapped each episode up with the creation of a larger-than-life project, such as a portrait of Queen Elizabeth made from crumpled currency or of a sea turtle fashioned out of gently combed sand.

Doodle POP also features some brilliantly active engagement with lighting design and projection, which Woogie and Boogie seem to influence with every movement.

When they write “ON/OFF” on the whiteboard and click the “buttons,” lighting operator Jee Woo Kim responds in kind, leading Woogie to look at his hands to reckon with his newfound power.

Lighting and animation are also used in both high-tech and analogue senses, with Woogie showcasing excellent shadow puppetry when his hands become a wolf and Boogie doing the same to transform into a hungry bird.

When the duo travels into the sea to chase after their beloved turtle, the entire theatre is immersed in the new biome thanks to rich sound and lighting design, which pairs seamlessly with Boogie and Woogie’s enormous, ever-shifting canvas. With erasers in hand, they transform a ship into a turtle into a whale and into an octopus; look out for the pesky tentacles.

Parents be warned: Brush Theatre says they’ve received a few complaints that the show has led a few miniature Michelangelos to practise on the dining room walls.

But the more likely result is that your kids — and you — will look at light, shadow, pen and paper with a fresh understanding of what’s possible when imaginations are allowed to soar together.

winnipegfreepress.com/benwaldman