THE BOOK OF THE BANSHEE. Tour to 22 March.
Young People
THE BOOK OF THE BANSHEE
by Anne Fine, dramatised by Tina Williams
Pied Piper Theatre Company and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on tour to 22 March 2002
Runs 1hr 40min One interval
TICKETS 01279 431945 (Harlow performances).
Review Timothy Ramsden 12 February at Harlow Playhouse
Plod-along adaptation could usefully send you back to the book of The Banshee.Maybe, thought the critic, it could all have turned out well if Tina Williams had limited herself to adapting or directing. Perhaps then we might have ended up with more than this dutiful plod through the plot of Anne Fine's book. I mean, it's almost certain it's a good book. Possibly a very good book.
But somehow, as characters wheel a couple of screens on to show we're somewhere at school, or as we see the Flowers family home, half dominated by a little-used bedroom, the point about busy parents and children growing into adolescence becomes lost in a dutiful recounting of external happenings, event by event.
To be fair, he mused, in an unaccustomed concession, there was a time – twenty years or more ago – when such a play would somehow have seemed a worthwhile theatre experience, opening up in a truly liberating way how adults and young people really feel. Then, four year old Muffy's eventual burst into speech would have seemed – what was it teacher had said in that literary lesson? – an epiphany of character.
And Estelle, at 13 on the cusp of something more than childhood, would have seemed, as she tried to sneak out to a wild party in her exiguous and sexy gear, a person crying out for respect in her own right, not a wilful youngster in need of advice on self-defence.
And Will, the will-less, who blossoms only when delving into imagination-sparking novels, would not have been merely a straggler in the queue of sensitive young males showing there's more to life than blokish laddism-in-the-making.
It's all in the telling. And, the reviewer eventually asserted, such drearily functional adaptations have had their day, which sank into night long years ago. The language of theatre production has moved on fast and young audiences now can expect more theatrically sophisticated adaptations. Or they will stay at home with the TV, video or computer. Except, if we're very lucky, it might be with a Fine book instead.
Estelle Flowers: Joanna Burnett
Muffy Flowers/Gran/Flora: Abbey Norman
George Flowers/Mt Scotbeg: James Higginson
Bridget Flowers: Pooja Ghai
Alicia Whitley/Miss Sullivan/Marisa: Moira Opazo
Chopper: Matt Carpenter
Mr Chopperly: Brendan Douglas
Director: Tina Williams
Designer: Susie Calcutt
Lighting: Trevor Wallace
Sound: Dan Last
Tour: February: 12-15 Playhouse Harlow, 19-22 Everyman Cheltenham, 26-27 Middlesbrough Theatre.
March 1-5 Corn Exchange King's Lynn, 5-6 Wilde Theatre Bracknell, 8-9 Gardner Arts Centre Brighton, 11-12 Beck Theatre Hayes, 15-16 Grand Opera House York, 19-22 Theatre Royal Wakefield.
2002-02-13 01:15:31