THE DELICIOUS REVENGE OF PRINCESS RUBY SLIPPERS. To 9 February.
Tour.
THE DELICIOUS REVENGE OF PRINCESS RUBY SLIPPERS
by Brendan Murray.
Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company Tour to 9 February.
Runs 1hr 35min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 4 January at Bradwell Grove Village Hall.
A good time’s to be had by all.
Is it a pantomime? A fairy-tale? Children’s story? Or family comedy? Well: No, No, Not Entirely, Not Exactly. And yet…
Brendan Murray wrote the script and directs the production. What’s more he runs the company. Is he that good? He is, as this witty, deft and perceptive evening shows.
It takes several minutes for Murray’s strategy to work through. At first we seem to be in Worthyville, PC, land of the average Theatre-in-education tour. Mum just wants to put her feet up for five minutes while two children, older brother and young sister, are activity-led boxes of energy, even though Jake’s looking for friend Tom to arrive so her doesn’t have to play with a girl.
Murray’s already showing both sides of the picture. Mum’s stoneground organic wholemeal sandwiches are scorned amid dreams of ice-creams with chocolate flakes. Any age in the audience can identify with its own generation on this; and it’s a sign Ruby’s revenge will indeed be delicious.
The transition to make-believe happens almost by sleight-of-hand. Mum’s already put on an avocado-based face-mask when Tom arrives. He stares at it in horror, as if he’s just encountered a witch. And its alleged rejuvenating effect preludes the coming magic.
Tom should wait, for mother returns in the guises upset children might create for parents: wolf (she’s eaten grandma, but listen to the way granny had criticised stressed-out mum to the kids). Then there’s Giant and Witch, all sounding as if they originate from different parts of Britain.
Meanwhile, curtains mysteriously draw in the sharp-perspective room of Jessica Worrall’s archetypal living-room set. Children’s games become fantastical in this enclosed world with external reality curtained off. Psychologically acute, it’s also great fun, filled with teasing panto references: Ruby’s unexplained change to a fairytale princess, cross-dressing as the boys become Ugly Sisters to escape a boy-eating Witch.
And it’s borderline farcical, with quick exits and entrances, plus a chase, and the light, pointed interplay of Murray’s script. All four actors are expert and seem to be having as good a time as I did. And that’s a very good one indeed.
Mum: Orla Cottingham.
Ruby: Chloe Lang.
Tom: Paul Stephenson.
Jake: Matthew Tanner.
Director: Brendan Murray.
Designer: Jessica Worrall.
Lighting: Helen Morley.
Composer: Richard Taylor.
2008-01-07 21:06:12