Darlington Hippodrome – until Sunday 14 July 2024
4****
It’s a snowy December, 1933 when twelve year old Stella Saxby wakes from her bed in Saxby Hall, the families large estate, she discovers that she is wrapped in bandages and her Aunt Alberta informs her that she has been in a coma and that both her parents died following a tragic car accident. Stella is sole heir to Saxby Hall, however Aunt Alberta has other ideas and is plotting to trick Stella to sign the Hall over to her and will stop at nothing to achieve her goal. Along with her trusted companion – Wagner, a giant owl the evil Alberta certainly lives up to her name as being awful, showing no sympathy and lacking morals, having chosen to fight on the German side in World War One, simply because she preferred the colours of their uniforms!
Birmingham Stage Company have done it again. Producing a quality production specifically for children. Anything that brings children into the theatre is always a winner for me. I’ll say it constantly – the children of today are the audiences of tomorrow and we need to give them amazing productions to introduce them to magic of live theatre.
The stage set mainly comprises of three large “pillars” which rotate to change from doors to staircases and the rooms of Saxby Hall. It’s really quite difficult to describe the set (designed by Jacqueline Trousdale) but visually it’s utter genius and whisks you into the weird and wonderful world of eccentric Aunt Alberta and makes you feel like you’ve done a sort of Alice In Wonderland trick and fallen into some magical world. Another favourite in the set, other than the fabulous puppetry of Wagner the owl by Emily Essery and the puppets (Yvonne Stone) of Alberta, Stella and Soot, is the splendid replica vintage Rolls Royce in which Stella attempts to make her escape in.
When Stella meets Saxby Hall ghost Soot, a cockney chimney sweep who ended up “brown bread” (that’s “dead” to you and I!) when someone lit a fire whilst he was cleaning the halls chimney and “burnt mi’ bum!’, the pair, realising something isn’t quite as it seems with the so called accident which resulted in her parents death and her Aunts attempts to get Stella to sign over Saxby Hall to her, the pair decide to turn into their own version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson to solve the mystery once and for all and attempt to break free from the awful Aunt and save Saxby Hall.
The production was made enjoyable by Neal Foster as the title character – the comical tartan bloomers and matching suit jacket and the copper hair which seemed to have a mind of its own who even seemed scary to the adults! Aunt Alberta is a towering inferno of a woman and Foster really brings out the scary wicked side of Aunt Alberta, this deranged cold hearted woman who thinks of her own desires before her family. Her niece and orphan Stella Saxby (Annie Cordoni) – was brilliantly vibrant and the audience loved it. Matthew Allen on the other hand as ghost Soot was loveable, portraying a young boy beautifully, from his voice to his mannerisms you soon forgot that the role was obviously played by somebody much older than the character portrayed.
Full of laughs and fart jokes, it was Zain Abrahams as Gibbon, the eccentric and slightly deranged Butler of Saxby Hall, who gave a few more laughs. Granted not the best Butler in the world, constantly getting things wrong, from hoovering the carpet with a lawn mower .
If you or your child are a fan of David Walliams’ books then this is most certainly worth catching on tour. If you’re not a fan yet, then go and see this and soon become one