TRUCKERS. Tour to 29 June.
TRUCKERS: Terry Pratchett, adapted Bob Eaton
Harrogate Theatre/ Belgrade, Coventry/ Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds joint prod
Runs: 2h, one interval, at the Belgrade till 20 April, tkts 02476 553055: www.belgrade.co.uk
Evening performances at 7.00, other performances vary between 10.00 am, 1.30 pm and 2.00pm
Review: Rod Dungate, Belgrade, 4 April 2002
A charming and engaging production, beautiful filmed inserts and witty designs, though missing a sense of dramatic tension.
This adaptation is charming: Pratchett's characters are brought into 3D by a talented cast: excellent filmed backgrounds provide the contrast in size between the nome (gnome) world and the alien human world. However, the translation from book to stage is not a hundred per cent successful – I missed a sense of danger.
When Pratchett writes he creates with great wit. Much of this is successfully recreated in Rob Swain's production. Most notably in the nomes themselves. I hate to think how many of the little gnome fellas may have absconded from the gardens of Harrogate, Coventry and Bury St Edmunds, but the acting team has paid detailed attention to the stances gnomes (and therefore nomes) adopt, then from this starting point the team has developed a characteristic rolling walk (movement director Pat Garrett).
Kit Surrey's designs strengthen the feeling of the nome world and are a constant source of delight – the back of the Abbot's chair is a Helix eraser, pens and screw drivers become walking staves. Filmed inserts (sensitively filmed by Gary Tanner) conjure up for us the giant proportions of lorry wheels, store gondolas and escalators. Director Swain has done a marvellous job in coordinating these with the on-stage action.
Matthew Bowyer is the kind of down-to-earth leader you'd follow anywhere as the nome from Outside, Masklin, and Terry Burns is completely engaging as the unworldly-wise son of the Duke of Haberdasheri, Angalo. How pleased we are when he takes to the dangerous road of adventure to return, scarred but a man – well, a nome. Stephen Aintree's creation of Abbot shouldn't be missed, he is a most reluctant kind of leader, he knows that there is a world beyond the store in which they live, that 'Everything under one roof' is not to be taken literally. But, as he says, pragmatically, 'I can't say that – they'd think I was mad.' The short scene in which he advises Masklin on the realities of leadership is startlingly accurate.
What I missed among all this joy, though, is a real sense of threat. It needs this to build a sense of narrative tension climbing in the first half and climaxing in the second. The lack leaves the production feeling level and episodic - it still has a novel structure and not a theatre one. We need to feel the characters we grow to love are in major danger, we need to fear for their lives. As adults we exercise our emotions through drama, young people learn what they are.
Cast
Abbot and Duke of Haberdasheri: Stephen Aintree
Masklin: Matthew Bowyer
Torrit: David Brett
Angalo: Terry Burns
Dorcas: Richard J Fletcher
Understudy/ ASM: Alex Froom
Gurder: Robin Johnson
Granny Morkie: Kate Layden
Grimma: Rosalind Paul
Filmed Characters
Lorry Driver: Michael Hymas
Prices Slashed: Jim Low
Bargains Galore: Katy Stephens
Demolition Man: Martin Byrne
Director: Bob Eaton
Design: Kit Surrey
Composer/ Voice of The Thing: Sayan Kent
Movement Director: Pat Garrett
Film Maker: Gary Tanner
Lighting: Paul Sheard
Sound: Steve Wilson
2002-04-05 10:42:40