Hijinx Theatre's imaginative take on the Tarzan legend modernises the classic tale by making the hero female and transplanting her from the jungle to the Welsh valleys.
Lucy Rivers as Anne, as in Tarzanne, cuts a Bjork-like figure; an angelic face and lots of high-pitched gibbering, at least at the begining of the play.
Returned to her mother after ten years in the jungle with chimpanzees, the 14-year-old struggles to cope with new surroundings.
Ms Rivers is hugely impressive as the half-simian teenager communicating by touch and shriek.
Director Greg Culen shows admirable restraint, ignoring Tarzan's most parodied attributes - the chest beating cry and the vine swinging would have seemed horribly out of place contemporary Wouth Wales. The scenes with all four actors portraying chimps is particularly affecting for striving for authenticity rather than caricature.
The repetitive singing of rock-a-bye baby grates at times, but that is a small criticism. There are plenty of laughs and a great deal of pathos in the relationships developed by Anne with her mother maisie (Nicola Branson) and Cliff (Mark Howell East) the neighbourhood watching father figure.
Mark Bernard plays Adam, the gay burglar, and is more cheater than cheetah. He sells pictures of the teenage monkey girl to the condemnation of the others. But ultimately he is also Anne's saviour.
Tarzanne asks important questions about modern life and its sustainability. The whole "It's a jungle out there" mentality can be seriously questioned by someone brought up in a real jungle |