THE BOY WHO FELL INTO A BOOK. To 8 March.

Young People

THE BOY WHO FELL INTO A BOOK
by Alan Ayckbourn

English Touring Theatre Tour to 8 March 2003
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 January at Oxford Playhouse

Ten year old ETT's first play for children: and it shows.Despite an excellent record for education work, English Touring Theatre takes a tumble with its first young person's production, as sure as the one that sends young Kevin zooming from the safety of his bedroom into the giant oven where he sets out with genre hero Rockfist Slim through a series of comic-edged perils.

Usually, Ayckbourn's plays translate surprisingly well from his Scarborough theatre in the Round to proscenium houses. Here, though, there's a loss. Close-up added a lot to the spiral of crazy adventures as Kevin – who gains considerably in the undaunted stakes as his page-turner hero proves clumsy and inept – undergoes his battles of the books.

Sudden contrasts and vivid unlikelihoods provide each scene's initial impact - including the Ayckbournian menace filtering into the apparently innocent episode from his little sister's first reader. Characters' struggles to cope with unexpected transitions smack home harder when they're confined on a small stage with audience wrapped round. A large stage - emphasised here by an anonymously severe, minimal design (abstract upstage platform, black curtains all around the stage) - diffuse the emotional impact.

That platform means, too, that action's too often played as remote as possible. Given gloomy lighting that frequently is less atmospheric than making for semi-visibility, and Ayckbourn's piece – a joyous, thrill-filled zing at its Scarborough premiere – becomes anonymous and cold, muted and muffled.

It's strong enough to survive to an extent, thanks to the script's verve and ready plunge into each adventure. Ayckbourn had a casting ace for Kevin in Charlie Hayes a young female actor who convincingly played a 14 year old lad. She could project a distanced boyish energy into the character without risk of making Kevin seem older; Matt Green provides the convincing, gangly awkwardness of a growing boy with his mind still in childhood adventures but, naturally, has to hold back to prevent playing up to age.

Ayckbourn's a master director; his scripts give multiple opportunities which a good production needs to exploit. Here, movement and character are flat – little development of the Kevin/Rockfist relation, for example – and generalised.

Kevin: Matt Green
Rockfist Slim: Eric Loren
Dad/Gareth/Rumpelstiltskin/Ebenezer/Daddy Woobly: Robert Sterne
Monique/Mummy Woobly: Sophie Hunter
Brunt/Bishop/Wolf/Narrator/Headless Monk: Gwilym Havard Davies
Pawn/White Queen/Little Red Riding Hood/Jennet/Baby Woobly: Lucianne McEvoy

Director: Tim Stark
Designer/Costume: Jackie Brooks, Holly Blenkins
Lighting: Geraint Pughe
Sound/Composer: Duncan Chave
Fight director: Renny Krupinski

2003-01-25 15:21:52