DANNY
THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD
Brentwood
Theatre Company at Brentwood Theatre
13.12.2014
A
very different kind of magic from last year – no music, no dancing,
but a low-key bedtime story, moving and uplifting, which in David
Wood's faithful adaptation captures the love and loyalty at the heart
of Dahl's 1975 original.
It's
a tale of poachers and pheasants, rich and poor, with plenty of food
for thought as well as excitement and suspense.
Against
David Zelly's cheerful
cardboard
cut-out design – the caravan and the cars play a key role here –
Danny and his Dad take on the squire and his gamekeepers, sharing the
secret ways of taking gamebirds:
the horse-hair stopper, the sticky hat, and the boy's own invention,
the sleeping beauty.
An
enthusiastic cast of seven is headed by Jackson Pentland's gentle
father and Porl Matthews' convincing Danny – their relationship is
compellingly
portrayed in several intimate scenes, Danny's adolescent frustration
and fearlessness against his Dad's worldly-wise affection
for his only son.
Both
the doctor and the taxi driver are women in this version [Abi Taylor
Jones and Joelle Campbell] – good strong performances, though I'm
not sure why the doctor and the vicar's wife [Elka Lee-Green] speak
like country bumpkins.
The
villains include Allen Watts' gamekeeper Rabbetts – he also plays
the kindly village copper – and Lee White's hilarious Hazell,
working the audience in traditional melodramatic fashion, with
a
sneer, a glance, a flick of his jacket. His apoplexy at the sabotage
of his shooting party is a highlight of the show, as is the
involvement of the audience as his honorary beaters.
Ray
Howes' heart-warming production is the ideal antidote to the
deafening delights of the panto; an
enchanting escape into a lost world of childhood.
production image: Carmel Jane Photography
