| Delightful and fascinating to watch |
At Hijinx Theatre |
| Hijinx Theatre- Gulliver , Wales Millennium Centre , December 13, 2009 |
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels will always remain one of the iconic novels of the English language. He was a forerunner of J. K Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien and many other writers whose works have been told through the modern media and made millions of pounds for their authors. His near three hundred year old tale of wonder and satire has never been out of print since the day it was written and has received many reinterpretations from TV, Film and radio with another ‘big name’ Lilliputian adventure planned for next year.Cardiff based, emerging young playwright Kit Lambert’s version for Hijinx theatre is delightful to watch and brought fascinatingly to life by Louise Osborn’s lively direction. Jonathan Swift, a well observed and up-beat performance from Brendan Charleson, tells us both at the beginning of the performance and at the end, that he is only doing it because he wants our money. He became afflicted with mental difficulties towards the end of his 78 year life and he wants our money to build an asylum for the mentally ill which still stands to this day as a psychiatric hospital in Dublin. He and his fellow players certainly earn their money in this exciting dash through the cleverly staged worlds of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the land of Houyhnhnm and defecating Yahoos. The straggly haired Yahoos, well represented by one of James Ashton’s frantically funny performances, repeated again as he brings us with an equally hilarious flair the egg-breaking emperor of Lilliput and the avenging emperor of the country’s sworn enemy Blefuscu and then the scuba-diving scientist from Laputa. He is not alone with this versatility. Zoe Davies, as well as giving us a beautiful and sensitive Ester, one of the great loves of Swift’s life, animates with a charming comic style the elegant Houyhnhnm speaking horse and the Queen of Brobdingnag who captures the puppet Gulliver and keeps him in a small cage, and is quite sad when she loses him. She also joins the goggle-flipping scuba diving Laputan trio. The trio is completed by Hijinx new-comer Michael Wagg who as well as adding to the comic diversions plays the part of Dr Lemuel Gulliver. It is the use of this character that demonstrates the value of writer Lambert’s developing artistry. Played in a captivating and relaxed manner with a magician’s touch he becomes Swift’s alter-ego and the choreography created between Wagg and Charleson is one of the highlights of Osborn’s direction. Carl Davies’ compact picture-book set, James Williams’ atmospheric music and Jane Lalljee’s lighting with expert control of all the technicalities round off yet another example showing the Hijinx team to continue to remain masters of the “disarmingly simple art of dramatic storytelling.” The production was not without some minor faults: a touch of self consciousness in the acting and staging at times but the verve and joy that this dynamic team of actors brought to the occasion soon pushed them into the background. |
Reviewed by: Micheal Kelligan |
This review has been read 2350 times There are 78 other reviews of productions with this title in our database:
|
