The BFG

I came a bit late to Roald Dahl - my son was a great fan and I remember reading 'The Twits' to him with great hilarity - I didn't get around to the BFG except seeing the film, with Mark Rylance as the lead and a lot of special effects, so I wondered how the LCT would tackle this enormous project. Well, I am going to steal one of Mr Dahl's BFG expressions - the production was 'scrumdiddlyumptious'!  In real english, something tasty and nice to eat - in this case, to watch !!!!

For those of you in the dark, like me, a pretty princess tale this is not - this has grit, flatulence (known as whizzpoppers!) child crunching nasty giants - combined with an orphan girl unafraid of the scariest monsters and our own late Queen Elizabeth.

David Wood, who adapted the book for the stage, has made it easier to bring the story to life - it begins with Sophie having a birthday party with her parents and friends - Sophie decides to 'act out' the story of the BFG, dressing up and using puppets as characters from the book - this works so well, with the party guests morphing into the book's characters. This gives great scope for the cast, who threw themselves energetically into the performance.

I was very impressed with the cast - Naomi Kelly played Sophie with great feeling and originality far beyond her years - her diction was clear and I could hear every word. Mike Tattersall played Sophie's Dad at the beginning, then became the BFG - a likeable character and I have admiration for his delivery of some real tongue-twisters in the dialogue!  Claire Dickson had many roles and was very comfortable with each one, changing voices with ease - I particulary enjoyed her Queen of England! Johnny Dickson, Sam Small, Lily Rugg, Ava Gregory and Georgia Vaughan all played a variety of parts brilliantly and I could tell they were enjoying themselves!

The production team for this show must be congratulated on a superb interpretation of this classic tale - Ian Goodison both directed and designed the play exceptionally well - his clever vision filtered down to the rest of the team - Dan Dainter, as Stage Manager, had a complicated script to follow, which he did in his usual professional way. Peter Waddicor and Chris Beardwell were once again in charge of Lighting and Sound, with Chris also the AV Designer. Jane Curtin not only made the puppets but co-ordinated the costumes so cleverly. Props were magically constructed, the hair and make complementary and the illustrations by Nico Morris were beautifully drawn. The Giant creations by Gary Loughrey and Mark Smith were just fantastic - the nasty Giants wore huge 'heads' - they were so effective and frightening! In fact the people behind the scenes must be congratulated on their dedication to LCT. It is so wonderful for all the young people involved to have such great back-up - I know it is appreciated by them and long may it continue.

I sat in the audience among a group of Brownies so I was able to watch their reaction to the performance - as soon as the curtain went up they changed from 'natterboxes' to 'mesmerizers' - i've borrowed those words from Roald Dahl ! - they so enjoyed the performance, as I did !!

My sincere congratulations to you all !!

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.