TORONTO — Prepare to see Mounties, beavers, buffalo-plaid shirts and plenty of Canadiana as the National Ballet of Canada puts a homegrown spin on its debut production of "Pinocchio."
The beloved Italian children's fable about a wooden puppet come to life has been adapted into musicals, operas, TV shows and the classic 1940 Disney animated feature.
Yet in its translation of the 19th-century novel, the National Ballet incorporates recognizable national symbols right from the show's opening.
"The curtain goes up and there are a lot of lumberjacks working on a big tree — it's quite straightforward," said award-winning British choreographer Will Tuckett. "They chop a tree, they open the tree, and in that tree is a strange creature, and it's how they react — and on it goes."
Skylar Campbell, who portrays the title role, sports a closely cropped head of curls in real life which serves as a template for his character's wig fashioned from wood chips.
The California native says the distinct Canadian elements featured in "Pinocchio" make the production special.
"There's a moose, there's a Mountie, there's beavers, there's raccoons," said Campbell, a first soloist who has been with the National Ballet since 2009.
Campbell says audiences will see the "wooden boy evolution" through his performance, which injects more rigid, puppet-like movements into the fluidity of ballet.
"The hard part is telling the story through subtle nuances with intense, very charismatic facial gestures," he noted.
Tuckett says what he found interesting about Pinocchio as a character is being in the form of a boy without the emotional tools of a real person.
"All the way along, a little bit of his woodenness is lost in each scene," said Tuckett.
"By the end when he is a real boy, he's able to be this fluid, soft, plastic creature, whereas at the beginning it's really good fun finding how clunky and awkward (he is) so he can't quite walk," he added, playfully exaggerating the puppet's motions in robo-like form.
"We were talking the other day in the rehearsal about the idea of ... newborn foals and things where their legs are kind of wobbly and imagining a puppet like that.... We spent a lot of time with Skylar getting that right."
Adding to the physical demands of Campbell's role are sequences in which the harnessed dancer takes flight. Then, of course, there's the extension of Pinocchio's plastic nose to a full 30 centimetres when he tells a lie.
"There's a lot of moving parts, there's a lot of scene changes, props and costume changes, growing noses, prosthetics, driving cars on the stage.... You see all the elements of the production come together into one unit," said Campbell.
"Dancing the role will be exciting, but just to see it all come together, and just to see how many people it takes to put together a show like this ... it's quite remarkable."
In another unconventional element for a ballet, a few members of the company will utter dialogue onstage.
"Most of us kind of go: 'If I was to put on a Lyrcra bodysuit and get out there in front of hundreds of people, that would feel exposing,'" said Tuckett. "But for them, speaking is quite an exposing thing because it's not what you're used to, and that's always hard.
"But they've really put it on as a skin," he added. "They're up for a challenge, and that's nice."
"Pinocchio" has its world premiere on Saturday and runs through March 24 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.
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Lauren La Rose, The Canadian Press
