York Theatre Royal – until Sat 14 September 2019
Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
5*****
Emma Rice’s Wise Children and York Theatre Royal have co-produced this production of Malory Towers in association with the Bristol Old Vic, which is touring until early October.
I grew up reading Enid Blyton, most noticeably The Famous Five, but did dabble in The Secret Seven, but that was about it. I have never read Malory Towers, or known anything about the series of books. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to seeing this piece on stage.
This show combines tales from the book series, retelling the stories of seven children, during their first term, of Malory Towers boarding school, on the Cornish coast. This is a tale of friendship, bullying and post war trauma. For this production we only ever get to see the physical portrayal of the children, as the only adult, the schools head Miss Grayling, is shown as a silhouetted videoed cartoon character voiced by Shelia Hancock. That is too simple of an explanation of how it appeared on the stage, because it was so very effective.
First set in a modern school, outside the Heads office, a traumatic experience takes us back in time, post war, to Paddington train station, where the girls are all off to Malory Towers. We meet second year Alicia (Renee Lamb), the joker of the bunch, welcoming the newbies. Tempestuous Darrell (Izuka Hoyle) soon befriends the timid Mary Lou (Rose Shalloo), sticking up for her when spoilt Gwendoline (Rebecca Collingwood) tries to bully her into changing seats. Also joining the train are Irene Dupont (Mirabelle Gremaud) and serious, super organised Sally (Francesca Mills). You get to meet the last character, Bill (Vinnie Heaven), who arrives at the school riding Thunder, the horse.
With back flips, harp playing, courtesy of Germaud, and songs, the whole cast were equally superb, energetic, believable and with great voices, working so well together. It would be hard to pick out one, but for me Mills was outstanding as Sally. She had so much charisma up on that stage, bounding about all over, and her comic timing was magnificent.
The set, designed by Lez Brotherston, is split on two levels, with the lower depicting the dorms. It is used to its full potential by the actors leaping from one floor to another. The floor even lifts up to show a swimming pool and this is shown to a fantastic effect when incorporating Simon Baker’s excellent video work. With the crayon, cartoon like drawings creating a laugh in the audience. His work later on during the thunder storm and Mary Lou’s rescue, was fabulous to watch.
Malory Towers is a celebration of childhood, showing how mean girls can really be, but also showing how bonds are formed and those school friends become each others family.
This is a great show for all, maybe for different reasons. For adults going back in time, even though it depicts the jolly hockey stick brigade that we only read about, or watched on our tv screens. For kids it is more the magic of the storytelling, and magic is what this show is.