REVIEWS: ARCHES THEATRE COMPANY

December 2005

© MARK FISHER published in The List

THE SELFISH GIANT •••

Arches Theatre, Glasgow

The pitch The puppet children are having a lovely time playing in the big garden until the owner, a misanthropic giant, returns home and kicks them out for trespassing. For his sins, he suffers an eternal winter and a sit-down strike from the plant life. It takes a quasi-religious vision of a small boy, too puny to climb a tree, to snap him out of his frosty isolation and bring the children - and the sun - back to the garden.

The verdict Jeni Campbell's design, complete with outsize flying insects, reversible flowers and bulbous giant's mask, is rich in organic charm. So too is Alasdair Macrae's varied and ever-present live score. But although Oscar Wilde's story works powerfully on the page, it is low on dramatic energy in Andy Arnold's adaptation. Younger children will be beguiled by the beautiful atmosphere and the low-key charm of Stewart Ennis as the narrator (unless they've been freaked out by Allan Tall's unfriendly giant); others will wish for a stronger protagonist to drive the action forwards.

See other examples of my writing here:

arts politics • celebrity profiles • food • health • literature • music • non-celebrity profiles • opinion pieces • theatre reviews • travel • visual art

Academic • Actors • Agents • Articles • Companies • Festivals • Groups • Industry • Mailing List • Mark Fisher • Others • Reviews • What's On • Writers • Site Map