WILEY AND THE HAIRY MAN
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See, the Hairy Man ate Wiley’s pappy, and now Wiley is convinced that the Hairy Man is coming for him. The only thing protecting Wiley is his old hound dog, because everyone knows that the Hairy Man hates dogs. But Wiley is forced to go into the swamp, Hairy Man territory, to cut down a tree to build his dog a house. There Wiley meets and then eludes his biggest fear. That, of course, angers the Hairy Man. But Mammy has discovered that if a person outfoxes the Hairy Man three times, he has to leave that person alone forever. The rest of the play consists of Wiley trying to trick the old conjurer.
The Growing Stage Childrens Theater Company and director Antony Van Zyl have put together a strong cast for this delightful rendition of Wiley and the Hairy Man. Wayne E. Pyle makes Wiley simpleminded and clever at the same time. Kent Nicholson, as Wiley’s dog, has some trouble slipping around the floor in his costume, but he’s so doglike endearing when he bites pieces off the Hairy Man that he becomes almost more of a hero than Wiley. Catherine Martineau plays Mammy as a sexy woman who’s arrogant about her magical powers but who is still the perfect loving mom when it comes to Wiley. Jonathon Pitts’s foot-stomping, teeth-gnashing, green-haired Hairy is in no way grotesque: he’s more big and mean than ogreish or goblin-like. He’s a clever trickster, a nasty swamp thing, and sometimes just an ordinary, frustrated magician. By making him more like a human being who could really exist, Pitts makes him more frightening.
