MATILDA AND DUFFY'S STUPENDOUS SPACE ADVENTURE. To 3 January.
Newbury.
MATILDA AND DUFFY’S STUPENDOUS SPACE ADVENTURE
by Steve Attridge music by Olly Fox.
Watermill Theatre To 3 January 2009.
10.30am & 2.30pm 8-12; 15-17, 24 Dec.
2.30pm & 7pm 13, 18-20, 22-23, 26, 27, 29 Dec-3 Jan.
BSL Signed 22 Dec 7pm.
Runs 1hr 50min One interval.
TICKETS: 01635 46044.
www.watermill.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 December.
Likeable but not a likely classic.
One colour hangs behind Steve Attridge’s new play for 5+. The Emerald City’s the obvious point of departure from the moment soft toys Matilda (a wannabe ballerina) and Duffy (a would-be magician of limited intellect) escape being thrown out by their owner and, in a sudden storm, find themselves alive and racing round an unknown planet to discover the tune which will restore music to the earth.
The way they send a door flying onto a local, who turns out to have darker purposes, is the first clear link to Oz. Instead of a yellow brick road, there’s a yellow beam from the planet’s spare sun. And if Matilda’s not quite a Dorothy, Duffy has his brains stuffed back in him in Scarecrow-like manner.
There’s colour, action and comedy as the pair battle with the Rock Lizard King, who eventually turns out about as fearsome as the Great Oz himself, and meet an energetic Space Punk. What’s missing is anything distinctive to give coherence and striking impact to the piece.
It’s far from a washout, maintaining a strong energy throughout. But whereas Oz has a firm source (rather than just an idea to vary) in Frank Baum’s books, and the resources of MGM in the 1930s, this seems to have little but a series of equivalences (which young audience members may not recognise anyway).
There’s little to give an overall momentum; nothing to match the journey in the first, or the attack of dark forces in the second, part of The Wizard of Oz, apart from a clockface that keeps appearing to provide a countdown to zero-hour for Matilda and Duffy’s search. So a sense of inevitability is missing. Even composer Olly Fox is unusually subdued, his ‘Space Bug’ paling beside Oz’s ‘Jitterbug’.
Still, there are likeable performances from Emily Butterfield’s glamorously vain Matilda and Ben Tolley’s amiably comic Duffy (both increase their self-awareness by the end), and their associates, particularly Angela Bain’s keenly energetic Punk. And congratulations to the Watermill for producing something new rather than retreading the old favourites. Even if the result shows why they are favourites.
Mother/Keyboard/Peapod/Corporal Minor: Sarah Groarke.
Matilda: Emily Butterfield.
Duffy: Ben Tolley.
Minstrel/Rock Lizard King: Christopher Hawes.
Major Major/Head Gardener: William Oxborrow.
Space Punk/Pavarotonia: Angela Bain.
Little Girl: Olivia Snell/Noella Doran.
Peapods: Ross Agar, Millie Coyne, Holly Davies, Gwen Douglass, Noella Doran, Georgina Hendry, Jake Mawson, Olivia Snell, Catriona Suttie, Eleanor Louise Young.
Director: Joanna Read.
Designer: Liz Cooke.
Lighting: Richard G Jones.
Sound: Chris Full.
Choreographer: Michaael Ashcroft.
Fight director: Phiip d’Orleans.
2008-12-09 12:50:33