'Rikki Tikki' eye-catching for the kids

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

•	'The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi' When: 4:30, 6:30 p.m. Saturdays through May 17 Special: sign-interpreted performance, 6:30 p.m. May 17 Where: McCoy Pavilion, Ala Moana Beach Park Tickets: $12 general, $6 youth and seniors Information: 839-9885

Jodi Endicott designs a sprawling garden of dried plant material on two levels, with burrows, a huge nest, and a large tree to swing from. Melanie Burgess' costumes are exaggerated human clothing suggestive of Kipling's animals.

The title character wears a tail, of course, but rat Chuchu wears an earth colored mu'u mu'u with a matching bandanna knotted around her head to suggest a pair of ears. Nag the cobra looks like a boxer in a green trailing robe and large hood.

The outfit for Darzee the tailor bird is the most fun, patterned on a colorful zoot suit with a long, floppy coat that suggests wings.

The actors' styles match the production's strong visual elements.

Cynthia See is loud and boastful as Darzee, squawking that the whole garden is "Mine, mine, mine," patrolling around her nest and keeping intruders away from the boy she calls her pet and whom she has trained to bring her crumbs.

Nara Cardenas is timid and skulks around the edges of the action as Chuchu, who is allowed to share the garden since she and Darzee made a pact not to try to eat each other. But there's still enough references to characters eating each others' eggs to turn you off those hard-boileds you may have colored for Easter.

Hermen Tesoro is skittery and chittery as Rikki, an innocent young mongoose looking for a home. The production glosses over that he was carried there by a flood and was thought at first to be drowned. Jonathan Sypert's Nag is a braggart and a bully, frightened of nothing and threatening even the young boy.

He hypnotizes Darzee with his penetrating stare and looks confident enough to devour everyone in sight.

But the animals team up to protect themselves and hit on a way to banish Nag forever. Only through teamwork and a few clever ideas can they overcome a much stronger threat.

So there's a bit of a moral, of course, but the elementary schoolers in the audience are there mostly for the action.

And after what seems like more than enough talk, the energy kicks in when mongoose and cobra finally go head to head in a spirited chase around the garden that has the kids ready to leap to their feet.

The adaptation softens some of the story's violent edges. Like this description of the fight:

Eye to eye and head to head,
This shall end when one is dead;
Turn for turn and twist for twist —
Hah! The hooded Death has missed!

But the show is filled with movement and color, and should work well for youngsters.