HIS DARK MATERIALS till 18 April
HIS DARK MATERIALS, based on the Philip Pullman books: Adapted by Nicholas Wright.
Birmingham Rep: www.birmingham-rep.co.uk.
Runs: Part 1 and Part 2, 3 hours each, one interval – see website for playing dates. 13 March – 18 April.
Review: Rod Dungate, 24 and 25 March 2009.
Well worth a visit.
To stage HIS DARK MATERIALS is a huge undertaking. The worlds which Pullman takes us through in his trilogy of novels are strange and haunting. In some ways the story loses some of its all important mysteriousness when the people and creatures are made manifest in front of us. On the other hand, there’s the delight of revisiting this remarkable story.
There is much in this Rep production to get you scooting along to a performance though the production doesn’t succeed on all fronts.
Amy McAllister must be congratulated for bringing the protagonist, Lyra Belacqua so beautifully to life. Her Lyra is energetic and full of warmth. It’s a huge undertaking but she carries it off, seemingly effortlessly. She’s well paired, too, with Nick Barber as Will. And the scenes between them are oases in which their relationship is allowed to blossom.
Lyra, of course, has a daemon – Pentalaimon. This beautifully designed puppet is exquisitely animated by Gerard Carey. The puppetry as a whole is one of the top thrills of this production. From Geoffrey Lumb bringing alive the powerful bear, Iorek Byrnison, through Ben Thompson’s breathing life into the never-still-for-a-moment, Golden Monkey, to the tiny and hilarious Galivespians of Ian Conningham, Nicholas Asbury and Josie Daxter and all the others, this is total joy in magic.
The problem with a stage adaptation of this type is that the story moves past too fast. For those who don’t know the books (and they’re out there, you know) it must seem like a breathless hurtle through a maze, with too little time to get to know anyone. This was certainly true of Part I, though Part II seemed to be more settled. Perhaps the acting team need a day or two more to settle into their roles and relationships. Many moments of the book work in a kind of operatic level, translated to spoken drama these moments are difficult (probably as difficult to perform as they are for the audience to take in.)
The uncomfortable, edgy tensions of the books are still there though, particularly in John Hodgkinson’s horribly arrogant pseudo-hero, Lord Asriel. Charlotte Asprey brings a cold and off-handed, ruthless beauty to the proceedings. Christopher Ettridge and Timothy Knightley bring a kind of old-world dignity to their much less dignified roles as Lord Boreal and President of the Consistorial Court.
Much to admire here on many fronts, so, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything, occasional warts and all.
2009-03-26 21:12:44