Costumes carry SCR’s ‘Por Quinly’

If you want to capture a young person’s attention on stage, the visuals are often more important than the plot. In this regard, South Coast Repertory fulfills its mission splendidly with its Theater for Young Audiences presentation of “The Adventures of Por Quinly.”

Costume designer Angela Balogh Calin has come up with some extremely eye-catching and fanciful outfits to decorate Quincy Long’s “Alice in Wonderland”-style fantasy, and the company’s professional performers gleefully supply the overindulgence required to maintain the kids’ attention once it’s caught by the often-outrageous outer garments.

Though Long’s play is somewhat silly ? even for the age level of his intended audience ? director John-David Keller, the company’s youth-show wizard, ensures effectiveness with brisk pacing and over-the-top interpretations. The presence of South Coast founding actor Richard Doyle (in four roles) doesn’t hurt either.

“Por Quinly” centers on its title character, a 10-year-old boy who despises birthdays and, of course, is facing one as the show opens. Rather than pick up the party trimmings his mother has sent him to get, the lad ventures down to the river, which, much like Alice’s rabbit hole, lures him into a brief but exciting adventure.

Alex Miller renders a pleasing performance in the central role, encountering and dealing with some really strange characters, beginning with Doyle’s Macbirthday, a Scotsman in a kilt with a candled cake on his head.

Doyle soon returns as the blubbering King of Tears, charged with weeping enough to keep the ocean flowing ? and looking to Por as a possible replacement.

Brightening the show considerably is Allison Case as Little Dippa, a button-cute young lady who becomes Por’s guide on what becomes, irrationally enough, a presidential quest when her dad, Big Dippa (Tom Shelton), notices the lad’s resemblance to Harry Truman.

Sol Castillo (a regular in South Coast Repertory’s “La Posada Magica” productions) is a semi-friendly rival who doubles as a lobster serving the King of Tears. Jodee Thelen doubles as Por’s stern mother as well as the flighty Gilly Galloo, a news-dispensing butterfly.

Naturally, there must be a villain in this sort of fantasy, and Long has created a unique one in the form of Scattermonger (Christine Avila), a bloated and egregiously smelly creature who bops her victims on the head with a hammer before transporting them to her cave in a wheelbarrow. This being a youth show, the character is more funny than scary.

“The Adventures of Por Quinly,” with an abbreviated score of 20 songs by Michael Silversher, plays out in just 90 minutes against a huge set of backdrops designed by Haibo Yu. It’s a colorful fantasy for the youngest audience members of Theater for Young Audiences.