(Claire
Mortimer, Lyle Buxton, Mpilo “Straw” Nzimande, Belinda Henwood,
Bryan Hiles
(inside the giant) & Daisy Spencer)
My 6 year-old grandson’s response: “Everything
was my favourite part. When can I come and see it again?” (Review by Keith
Millar)
The trouble with trying to write sensible
reviews about the constantly imaginative and innovative productions staged by
the KickstArt Theatre Company is that one is inclined to run out of
superlatives by the end of the second paragraph.
In reporting on the dazzling, charming and
breath-taking production of Roald Dahl’s whimsical story, The BFG, I find myself wanting to use all the superlatives I can
conjure up right off the bat.
It is an enchanting production.
Captivating, creative, funny, uncomplicated, magical and, most of all, very,
very entertaining.
Roald Dahl’s quirky children’s stories have
long been a staple reading diet in my family. Firstly read to my own children
and now with equal relish to my grandchildren.
So it was with great delight that I was
able to take six year old Landon to see this production of The BFG.
Here are some of his reactions to the play.
Firstly, he gave me the following précis of the story.
“So, when a little girl (Sophie) saw the
BFG (Big Friendly Giant) blowing dreams into windows he had to put her into his
pocket and take back with him to giant land. They travelled far across the
world and over oceans.
In giant land there were bad giants who
liked eating little children. They also bullied the BFG.
So Sophie and the BFG travelled to the
palace and after giving the Queen a nightmare about giants eating children,
they explained to her the problem.
She sent her army to capture the giants and
put them in a big hole in the ground from where they could never escape.
The BFG and all the children from the
orphanage were then invited to stay with the Queen in her palace forever”
Then during and after the production he had
the following to say. “The BFG is
super cool”. The bad giants eating children was said to be “really scary”. The
school teacher doing a mad dance in a child’s dream was “very super funny”. The
puppets - “I like them, can I have one?”
Now for the observations from the 70 year-old
grandfather.
Bryan Hiles is the BFG. Hiles has put in
many memorable and acclaimed performances in KickstArt productions before.
However, on this occasion he surpasses everything that I have seen him do in
the past and performs on a whole new level. He is absolutely superb in the role
– and how he memorised the dialogue where every sentence is in convoluted
English and contains at least a couple of gobbledegook words is beyond
remarkable.
Belinda Henwood as the young girl Sophie is
cute and sassy. She excels at operating her puppet self while delivering her
lines at the same time.
Daisy Spencer puts in a supreme comic
performance as the dancing school teacher in a little girl’s dream. It is fall-off-your
chair funny. She also displays her wonderful comedy timing as the Queen’s maid
Mary.
The rest of the cast, Claire Mortimer,
Mpilo “Straw” Nzimande and Lyle Buxton are absolutely charming and exuberant as
they play multiple roles, operate all the puppets, move sets about and seem to
have an enormous amount of fun in the process.
Greg King is the director and designer of
this production which displays all the hallmarks of his award-winning work.
King has won much acclaim for his work over the years and deservedly so. The BFG is right up there with his best.
Another award-winning theatre practitioner
involved in this production is lighting guru Tina Le Roux. Her work on this
production is memorable. From the beautiful backdrop of twinkling stars to the
ethereal dreams which float about and which the BFG giant captures and places
in bottles for later use.
So, how are normal size people and giants
portrayed together on stage? While without giving away too many spoilers, let
me just refer to the above-mentioned puppets (beautifully created by Wendy Henstock),
and to two different-sized sets, exquisitely imagined and created by King.
There is much to rave about with this
glorious production but suffice it to say that I highly recommend that you
don’t miss it - and take the kids. If you don’t have any borrow some. It is a
wonderful experience seeing all the magic through their eyes.
I leave the last word to six year-old
Landon. When asked at the end what his favourite part was, he said: “Everything
was my favourite part. When can I come and see it again?”
The
BFG runs until July 8, 2018, at the Elizabeth
Sneddon Theatre with shows on Tuesdays
to Fridays and Sundays at 14h30 and on Saturday at 11h00 and 15h00. Tickets from
R135 to R195 and are available from Computicket. – Keith Millar
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