TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN. To 12 January.
Manchester.
TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN
by David Wood from the book by Philippa Pearce Music by Richard Taylor.
Library Theatre To 12 January 2007.
Mon-Sat various dates 10.15am, 2pm (24 Dec only) 2.30pm, 7.30pm.
no performance 25-26 Dec, 1, 7 Jan.
Audio-described 12 Dec 2.30pm, 17 Dec 7.30pm, 10 Jan 2.30pm, 12 Jan 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 12 Dec 2.30pm, 5 Jan 2.30pm, 10 Jan 2.30pm.
Captioned 28 Dec 2.30pm.
Lone Parents 31 Dec 2.30pm.
Runs: 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 0161 236 7110.
www.librarytheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 3 December.
Theatrical dance to the music of time.
A loud sound starts each act of this Library Theatre revival of its successful 2002 Christmas production. It’s the sound of a clock, though loud enough to represent a Stakhanovite squad setting to work at the end of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard.
Time echoes loudly through the piece, enacted in a space dominated by ticking devices. A realistic grandfather clock stands proudly alone behind a bare stage, which itself represents a huge clock-face, with hands that swing to various settings, forming a bridge or other shapes and spaces, tight or open, for each scene.
Surely co-director Liam Steel won’t mind Roger Haines being identified as originator of the production’s concept, which brings staging ideas from avant-garde performance-styles and uses them tellingly in a narrative which might be a child’s version of a J B Priestley time play.
Tom’s a polite mid-century child, isolated with a pompous uncle and anxious aunt in their Fenland flat while his brother sits out an infection at home. He has a tedious time of it until, lacking a lion, a witch or a decent wardrobe, he accidentally steps outside at midnight (actually, thirteen o’clock) and finds, instead of the mid-20th century rubbish bins, a late Victorian garden.
Nightly visits to the house’s past exterior lead to a friendship with Hatty and an alternative life that becomes more real than his mundane existence, but is always fleeting. Tom can never stay-over in the past, and there’s a question over how time’s progressing in the world he visits every 24-hours.
Haines employs a chorus of figures, semi-concealed in overcoats and trilbies, working out time’s mysterious processes. Choric sections intermingle with scenes of realism in past and present, the former awash with Richard Taylor’s atmosphere-heightening score, which creates moods from questioning agitation to a sweeping skaters’ scene.
There’s a splendid elusiveness too in the obvious liking between Tom and Hatty, alongside the clear direction her affections start taking in her own era. And the joyous final resolution, crossing ages and generations, confirms this as one of the finest pieces of work for young audiences from the century’s first decade.
Tom: Arthur Wilson.
Aunt Gwen/Susan the Maid: Carolyn Tomkinson.
Uncle Alan/Abel the Gardener: Chrisropher Chilton.
Hatty: Claire Redcliffe.
Mrs Bartholomew/Aunt Grace: Helen Ryan.
Hubert Melbourne/Barty: Ben Ingles.
James Melbourne/Tower Guide: Timothy Allsop/Paul Mallon.
Edgar Melbourne/Peter: Matthew Dunphy.
Directors: Roger Haines, Liam Steel.
Designer: Jamie Vartan.
Lighting: Colin Grenfell.
Sound: Paul Gregory.
Music Director: Richard Taylor.
2007-12-06 10:43:07