Tinderbox
is a family musical comedy, appropriate for all ages, and running about one hour
in length. Freely
adapted by the Hans Christian Andersen story, the
setting is now medieval Spain where three dogs with eyes as big as saucers are
the unhappy servants of an evil King. When
the King goes too far, the dogs rebel and take a ridiculously idealistic soldier
and a slightly bitter princess and shape them into the pair who take over the
Kingdom and rule it well with the three dogs, ever watchful. The show features a strong female role model in the Princess,
and teaches about the value of hope. There
is also a small amount of audience participation.
The show was written to be performed in the round with very little set (a tree and some rehearsal cubes painted like stone) and by a cast of six or seven actors, three men and either three or four women. It also has a prerecorded soundtrack available. It was produced in January of 1998, and ran for six weeks at Stark Raving Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The show outsold all others in the children’s season, and was successfully used to bring funding to the theatre.