Aylesbury Waterside – until Saturday 28th January 2023
Reviewed by Julia Spargo
3***
Strange things are afoot in twelve-year-old Alfie’s town. As children lose their teeth and leave them under their pillows for the tooth fairy, instead of money they are finding squashed toads and bats’ wings under their pillows.
When Alfie’s dentist has a strange and unexplained “accident”, he is replaced locally by Miss Root. Miss Root arouses Alfie’s suspicions almost immediately, and after she removes all his teeth during his first visit, Alfie sets about trying to discover the truth about his town’s new dentist.
The first half of this production by Neal Foster is used to introduce the characters. Alfie (Sam Varley) lives at home with his dad (James Mitchell), a wheelchair-user with a progressive lung condition caused by working in the mines. A social worker, Winnie (the fresh and funny Misha Macolm) visits the house to assist Alfie and his dad, and ends up getting involved in slightly more than she bargained for. Alfie goes to school with Gabz who is categorically “not his girlfriend”, but is a great partner-in-crime, and played with verve by Georgia Grant-Anderson. Miss Root (the statuesque Emily Harrigan) is an over-the-top pantomime villain. At the end of the first half, Alfie unwillingly visits Miss Root for a check up at her surgery, where she also keeps a menacing white cat. All cliches are in place to indicate that this visit is not going to go well.
The second half warms up considerably with the introduction of the character Raj, played brilliantly by the scene-stealing Zain Abrahams. A set-piece of toilet humour involving Winnie and some chocolates had the children in the audience rolling around with laughter. The last twenty minutes, involving a chase into a mine, chandeliers made of human teeth, kidnap and death, could be frightening for younger children but my mini-reviewers were aged between 10 and 14 years and remained very engaged. Some very effective use of sound and lighting made them jump a few times, but I would say the production is geared for ages 8-11. There are a few songs, but apart from a touching duet between Alfie and his dad, none of them were particularly memorable, though were carried well by the cast of strong voices, particularly Alfie and Miss Root.
The second half of Demon Dentist was a lot pacier than the first, and considerably funnier. My young critics rated the play a 9 out of ten; more generous than me, but then I have odontophobia, and tooth removal features heavily in the first half, along with realistic and somewhat sickening sound effects!