HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'S MAGICAL TALES. To 17 January.
Oxford.
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN’S MAGICAL TALES
by Lizzie Hopley.
Mirror Tent BMW Group Plant Oxford (Gate 7) Horspath Road Cowley.
12pm 9, 15 Jan.
2.30pm 26-31 Dec, 2-3, 10, 17 Jan
7.30pm 26-30 Dec, 2-3, 6-10, 12-17 Jan.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 01865 766266.
www.creationtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden.
Needing more thought about overall structure – but still a company well worth keeping.
After last winter’s Grimms’ Tales from Creation Theatre an actor made a statement of solidarity with Derby Playhouse, which had suddenly been closed on financial grounds. Before this year’s Hans Andersen compendium came a statement on Creation’s own behalf.
Two saturated summers have hit audiences for a company which mostly performs in the open-air. Only individual donations had saved this show, and the company’s still looking for support (details from the Creation website).
Such circumstances would give an extra pleasure to reporting on a humdinger of a show. Creation adds noticeably to the city’s theatrical life. Even when the outcome has limitations – as with last spring’s Measure for Measure - there’s thought behind the work. In winter the sight of Creation’s ornate mirror-tent amid the evening bleakness of the Cowley motor-plant is cheering.
There is a fair amount to enjoy in this show, especially for someone new to the company’s method with such tales. Performing on a high central stage, liberally sprinkled with trap-doors for sudden entries and exits, the cast flit on and off in various character guises as stories move pacily forward. Staging limitations are turned to imaginative advantage.
Yet this isn’t Creation at its best. Lizzie Hopley, as fine a writer as actor, has bound tales well and lesser-known in a structure where dark and light battle. Yet that’s more apparent from a programme note than the piece itself. Some tales are perfunctorily handled, like Thumbelina or The Ugly Duckling (though it’s movingly noted at the end that Andersen described ‘Duckling’ as his autobiography).
There’s a tendency to use humour more than is apt. At times it seems a way of shrugging-off aspects of a story. Even Creation’s usual fluency of performance is variable, with some under-characterised moments – though Sophie Duval strongly physicalises and characterises each of her roles.
There’s still a fair amount to enjoy, including the Emperor’s New Clothes satire and much of The Snow Queen. But so many of these Tales have been told in more depth, and here, without their frame fully established, the play fragments rather than bringing Andersen’s work into focus.
Cast:
Jonathan Baker, Jordan Berande, Sophie Duval, Lowri Gwynne, Adam Henderson-Scott, Olivia Mace.
Director: Caroline Leslie.
Designer: Tom Rogers.
Lighting: Ian Saunders.
Sound: Matt Eaton.
Composer: Peter Lole.
Associate designer: Alexie Kharibian.
2008-12-26 23:38:01