'Scarecrow' at Children's Theatre blends slapstick and social awareness

The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis introduces an unlikely hero this weekend: a valiant scarecrow with more guts than common sense who is determined to right the world's wrongs.

While it's filled with laughs, "The Scarecrow and his Servant" also fulfills a key responsibility of one of the leading children's companies — to create new work.

• More on the CTC's 2013-14 season

The play begins with an ineffective scarecrow, complete with turnip head, which magically comes to life. He turns out to be a complicated fellow: a cross between Don Quixote and Candide, and a whole lot of other stuff.

"You have this grand fool, who is both ridiculous and noble, and possessed of fantastic instincts to do right," director Peter Brosius said.

Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher calls the scarecrow, "a dapper, Britishy, kind of John Cleese-y character."

"[He's] someone who is so full of the idea of grandeur and splendor because they are so blinded by the beauty of what is potentially out there, rather than the reality that is in front of them," said actor Dean Holt, who plays the Scarecrow.

The three are the core of a team that has been working on and off for five years to adapt Philip Pullman's book "The Scarecrow and his Servant" for the stage.

Pullman is perhaps best known for the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which includes "The Golden Compass" that was adapted into a film a few years back.

Brosius came across the Scarecrow book when his son read it in his fourth grade class. The story of friendship between the clueless Scarecrow and his wily but penniless servant Jack delighted him. Brosius also loved the way the author weaves larger issues into the tale.

"Philip Pullman is so amazing in the way he can make you laugh so hard, at the same time he makes you think deeply about how you take care of this earth," Brosius said. "Where do we put our priorities? What does it mean to live in this land where there is always war?"

The Scarecrow unwittingly becomes embroiled in a corporate plot to turn the farmland where he once scared birds into a weapons factory.

The challenges of presenting the fantastical story also enticed Brosius.

"I've got a guy in a turnip head, and then he has to have a coconut head. How do you do this?" he said, his face split with an excited grin. "And then he loses half his body parts and you have to replace them with umbrellas and road signs. It's like, OK, this is fabulous! It's completely impossible! Let's do it!"

Brosius hired Hatcher, an acclaimed playwright, to write the script. Hatcher streamlined the story and added what he calls dramatic sinew and muscle to the plot.

"There is nothing quite like writing a terrifically stupid character who is nonetheless very articulate," Hatcher said.

Through a series of workshops and staged readings, and a month-long rehearsal process, the CTC team has worked and reworked the material so it will sing to a younger audience. It's told in a commedia dell'arte style complete with slapstick and huge false noses.

The scarecrow tries to be a soldier. He proposes to his lady love, somehow missing the fact she is actually a broom. He even gets a job in a traveling theater. But the witless hero mistakes a tragic scene on stage for reality and rushes to comfort the leading lady.

Bawling, he tries to hug her, but instead she screams and demands to know what he is doing.

"You were just so moving, I got all mushy inside," he says.

"Get back to your place," she responds in a threatening whisper, shoving him hard.

As the scarecrow, Holt's face constantly ripples with conflicting emotions. It's a challenging role. Not only does he have to lose his entire body during this show, when he does have a torso, he has to perform on stilts, as scarecrows rarely have feet. But he revels in the character.

"I have a brain the size of a pea," he said of the Scarecrow. "So that incredible sense of being naive and innocent in this world, and yet having the Don Quixote thing of being full of yourself and having grand ideas and grand ambitions, it's just a great thing to play."

"The Scarecrow and his Servant" will run for about a month at the Children's Theatre Company.

Brosius admits it's a huge amount of work for one production.

"Why is this important?" he asked. "You get to see it once, and if it's not extraordinary, why bother? And we have an audience that is the most important audience in the world."

Brosius said the CTC audience today is the grown-up theater audience of the future. He's confident the Scarecrow is likely to be stumping across American stages at other theaters for years to come.