JACK AND THE BEANSTALK. To 25 January.

London

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
by Hope Massiah and Delroy Murray

Theatre Royal Stratford East To 25 January 2003
26-28,30 December 1-4,8-11,15-18,22-25 January 7.15pm
26-28,30-31 December 2-4,7-11,14-18,22-25 January 2.15pm
Audio described 15 January 2.15pm & 7.15pm
BSL Signed 16 January 2.15pm & 7.15pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 020 8534 0310
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 December

An entertaining show, but lacking E15's rip-roar quality. Sun shines brightly o'er the fields nigh Stratford village, where the villagers are set for their rural festivities amid dinky clean-paint cottages and a windmill. So the scene has gotta be historical, 'cos the rent there now'd be astronomical.

Yet Jenny Tirmani's suitably impossible set's offset by the sharp suited spiv who enters with his satchel of beans. Michael Bertenshaw's chisel-featured Trickster's accompanied by schoolgirl daughter Trixie, who in true teen fashion's not long before she's rebelling about having to be nasty to everybody, innit.

It's an enjoyable enough occasion, and Bertenshaw has a smarmily sneering manner towards the audience which fits his slick-striped threads and sneaky manner. There's good work too from the terrestrial cast and from Trickster's bosses at the upper echelon of the beanstalk: the man-eating Mr and man-cooking Mrs Hoger, top drawer giants.

In a production so multi-cultural you generally don't notice, it's the white middle-class politician Jonas and preening wife Yasmin who stick out like sore thumbs – he with his orange rosette and moustached smile, she with her awfully elegant garden-party wear (though she baulks at the physical exertion of actually having to cut a ribbon to declare something or other open).

Loads of community solidarity then, focussed round innocent young Jack Sweet who brings the shekels and the gold-egg laying Freckled Hen back from the sky, with help from the giant's harp, no less.

But for all the good nature, there's a punch missing from this year's E15 offering. The script's never that witty – or corny – and even the spectacle lets you down a bit. There's a tremendous black, roaring cracking as the beanstalk grows, but given the time it goes on an upturned house-front and a few giant leaves strung on the stage is a let-down when it's all over. More so, as Jack does no real climbing.

Kat B has a sympathetic relation with the audience, sings fine and such dance as he's given is good to watch. But if only – incorporated in the plot of course - he were given more. He could really take wing and set the stage alight.

Trickster: Michael Bertenshaw
Trixie: Suzann McLean
Mrs Sweet: David Webber
Village Auntie: Lucy Vandi
Jack Sweet: Kat B
Sam: Michael Luxton
Jonas Headman: Anthony Psaila
Lady Yasmin: Bridgitta Roy
Mrs Hoger: Rebecca Deren
Mr Hoger: Michael Samuels
Harpie: Tina Jones
Freckle Hen: Susan Lawson-Reynolds
Villagers: Natasha Bickelman, Maurizio Dhanani, Kelly Downes

Director: Kerry Michael
Associate Director: Dawn Reid
Designer: Jenny Tiramani
Lighting: Zerlina Hughes
Video Artist/Filmaker: Mark Levermore
Video Production: Gary Horsman
Sound: Chris Wheelan
Musical Director: Robert Hyman
Choreographer: Julie Armstrong
Associate Choreographer: Kenrick "H20" Sandy
Flying: Foy

2002-12-26 13:53:57