A LONG TIME AGO: touring till 11 July

Young People

A LONG TIME AGO
by Mike Kenny

Royal Theatre Northampton on tour to 11 July 2003 Schools performances only
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 June at Blisworth Primary school

Strong performances, size without fright, an eye and ear for the humour.
Rosanna Lowe's production, touring Northamptonshire primary schools, takes a more upfront comic approach to Mike Kenny's play for 4-7s than the production I caught years ago at Cardiff's Sherman. It's probably necessary, especially for older viewers in the range.

The tale of Giants' rivalry and boasting uses patterned speech, with rhythmic repetition. 'They were heavy. Very heavy. Very heavy indeed.' Such formulations, catching a young child's speech patterns, became part of a poetic myth in Cardiff's theatrical production. In Northants. primary school-hall daylight and with older children whose own speech has developed, the more humorous approach to these giants is justified. And intensified by the green-faced, wide-angled ears cosmetics.

Hywel and Megan lived long ago on a mountain. Their lifestyle's made clear battling up the mountain with water, struggling against the blasting winds (part-created by the audience, who also have a go at being rocks and neighbours in gentle audience participation).

Hywel brags about his height till a rival giant, Idris, comes to challenge him. Then, the fear beneath Hywel's boasts becomes clear. For all his giant status, there's a playground childishness to the big man's boasts.

There's an aptness to Megan's strategy for saving her husband. In an echo of the famous second Wakefield Shepherds' Play from the Mystery Cycles, he's disguised as a baby. The idea's also to pass him off as a measure of how massive the supposedly absent Hywel must be if this is his baby and his baby-boots.

Add a massive cheese and loaves with iron pans inside and Idris is sent packing. But not before Megan's challenges have lead him to turn their cottage from the wind and split the rocks to provide nearby water.

A subsequent workshop creates giant tribes, stomping around until reminded everyone has something to fear. Water giants fear jellyfish, tree giants woodpeckers. The play's themes of boasting and of finding subtler solutions to problems (even if rather tricksily deceptive ones) give it a resonance that's well brought-out by three strong performances, well-geared to size without fright (we first see the towering giants fearful themselves), and Rosanna Lowe's well-judged production.

Hywel: Ben Pitts
Megan: Georgina Roberts
Idris: Ben Phillips
Musician: Dominic Phillips

Director: Rosanna Lowe
Designer: Diego Dietrich
Music: Dominic Colchester

2003-07-08 21:49:01