The Wondercrumping World of Roald Dahl

Staging The Wondercrumping World of Roald Dahl, The Phoenix Youth Theatre working in conjunction with the Courtyard,  provided  a performance of adapted versions of The BFG and The Witches, together with songs from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. Such is the size of membership of Phoenix Youth, that the four performances were split between two teams.

To get us all in the mood, the performance opened with the cast singing ‘Pure Imagination’, followed by Act 1 ‘The BFG’, which revolved around Sophie who finds herself taken to the Land of the Giants where her main purpose became helping the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) to stop the bad giants and their wicked ways.  The two main roles of Sophie and the BFG were taken by Seren Williams and Paisley Comrie-Bowcott who both spoke up clearly and led the way. We see how dreams are caught in a jar and a dream fit for a Queen is presented. The Queen of England was well handled by Emilia Mayo and so too was the Queen of Denmark we met later, played by Amélie Gooch with a great accent.

Mary was very convincingly played by Polina Drobotun and eventually the flying squad (Nye Roberts and Elijah Davis)  captured the three giants; Blood Bottler (Amelie Jones) Bonecruncher (Maggie Britton) and Gizzardgulper (Lily Rylatt) who all provided great characterisations. Paisley led the closing song ‘Revolting Children’ with a good strong voice.

In Act 2,  ‘The Witches’, the Grand High Witch has a plot to destroy all children, but on a trip to Hotel Magnificent she meets a mysterious Grandma who, with some help, is about to change everything.

The scene is set by a boy played by Christopher Nunn and Grandmother played by Iris Williams who did an excellent job at story telling. Both spoke up clearly. The hotel manager was well played by Inara Langman and I liked Mabel Avard who played Bruno, with an obvious weakness for chocolate! They meet the Grand High Witch expressively played with a great accent by Millie Welch.

Three witches with impressive wigs were well played by Beth Fawkes, Holly Weal and Sophie Williams and they and the Grand High Witch all pretend to be supporters of the RSPCC – the Royal Society for the prevention of cruelty to children! But the potion to be used to eradicate children is stolen from the Grand High Witch and served to them all in the soup at dinner and they are all changed into mice and the cat is sent for! The Chefs, Freya Daunton and Orlaith Fletcher also gave good support and we discover the Grandma was a special agent!  Christopher and Mabel led the final song ‘When I Grow Up’ with great gusto.

There was a simple set with a few props which were quickly moved around mainly by the cast  and all the sound effects were good. This was an evening of great fun enjoyed by the audience with thanks to Director Kate Ross and her production team.

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