Birmingham Stage Company at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford
13.04.10
Roald Dahl's subversive story first entranced young readers some thirty years ago. No need then for Health Warnings about the dangers of mixing lavatory cleaner and lipstick in a magical witch's brew.
I'm sure the excited pre-teens who packed the Civic are smart enough to tell fantasy from fact, even if the child in front of me took the chimneypots of Jacqueline Trousdale's wonderful set for Daleks …
And there was plenty of fantasy – dream sequences like Billy Liar's, or Billy The Boy Wizard in George's book – in a lively, noisy show, adapted by David Wood and directed this time out by Phil Clark.
Maybe the recipe was a bit long – and we heard it all over again in Act Two – but the animals were delightful: piglets, curious chickens, a cow, a bull. And the actors worked hard to keep the mad plot on the boil.
Clark Devlin was the boy George who touches with his fingertips the edge of a magic world. He related easily to his audience, and persuaded us to join in the incantation, rub our hands to warm the pot, blow on it to cool it down. Erika Poole was glorious as Grandma, the grumpy old bird with a taste for gin and slugs. And a special mention for Kirstin Allen and Eloise Wilkinson, two kids from Tomorrow's Talent, having their moment of fame as the mini-Grandma and the not-quite-giant chicken.
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