Lyric Theatre, The Lowry, Manchester – 5th July 2017. Reviewed by Julie Noller
Tonight was date night with my boy, I shouldn’t say that as its an embarrassing Mum moment. In his younger years he’d read Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox, we’d even been to the cinema to watch the film. He was my perfect plus one choice, so I could canvas his opinion too. I have to say if you head to The Lowry to watch his week you will be enthralled first by Iris, the digital laser show designed by Marsh mellow laser feast. I’ve seen it three times now and my son loved it marvelling at the way the lasers danced reaching out to touch them. I also watched and listened to all the children in the audience squealing with delight, that put a massive smile on my face,how different children react compared to adults.
Fantastic Mr Fox is a fast paced fun, singing and dancing extravaganza. It reminded me during many of the singing routines of Horrible Histories (who doesn’t love that?) the words were funny, had a rhyming appeal and had many adult and child laughing. My son commented on the many accents he noticed throughout, I had presumed it was deliberate so as not to tie the performance down to any one area, to show that the story could be set anywhere, again the strong accents were pretty stereotypical and amused me. But it also helped to differentiate the characters on stage not just by looks but sound too.
The set, we discussed, we liked. It didn’t look like an old oak tree or too much like the inside of a chicken factory but could’ve been like when we played den with an old sheet over the dining table – only I’m sure Tom Scott as Designer and his team would prefer me to point out we thought the turnstyle set genious, it played with our imagination, the same piece had various uses. It kept us concentrated on the centre of the stage where the action was. The movements of each character was well practiced and your eye was drawn to those finer details, Mr Fox (Greg Barnett) so confident, so proud of his exploits and of his tail, Mrs Fox (Lillie Flynn) Mother to be and seeker of adventure. Completing the Fox family is Kit (Jade Croot) swishing her tail and enjoying all those human electronic devices tasking her mind, keeping her sharp, fighting as all youngsters do against being left out because you’re too young and what does she do? Shows her father to trust her, saving the day. Mole (Gruffudd Glyn) with his bad eyesight and love of rocks, Badger (Raphael Bushay) slow and steady and geeky in a badger way. Rabbit (Sandy Foster) without doubt mine and surprisingly my sons favourite character loud and excitable and more than a little naughty with her one liners full of innuendo thrown in, cue children looking confused as to why the adults were laughing at something that wasn’t funny, but they soon joined in laughing anyway. I’m left contemplating if Rabbit’s costume with it’s throwback to Jane Fonda work out video’s, will it make a comeback?
The singing ranges were vastly different (from loud and powerful to spoken) but that meant it never lost the fun element, I thought a musical might be too much for my teenager but he commented he had enjoyed the singing and they were all very good.
There is one moment where I believed the younger children may have nightmares and that reduced my son into laughter, we were introduced to the guard dog, it makes it’s way through the auditorium stopping by many of the seats, its scary the performer is dressed all in black with red eyes lit up like a demon possessed. The saving grace that our heroes all worked together to scare the bully off before it got to work.
Fantastic Mr Fox shows the humanistic side to our beasts and the almost perverse beastly side to our humans. Mr Fox has to learn to be humble and accept help at a time when he felt invincible, losing his precious tail alongside his balance means his family and friends struggle to find food and survive. Its only by working together and helping one another that they overcome prejudice and manage to keep each other warm and fed. The farmers on the other hand end the play cold, hungry and still waiting. I’ve never realised the messages that great stories like these portray before, I know it’s a school night and you might not want your little ones to be up so late, but you won’t regret taking them to see Fantastic Mr Fox, from its brilliant lighting, innovative set design. Not to mention the singing and dancing – I’m sure there’s a few young boys going to be singing about gutting turkeys in the school playground today. They may be tired the next morning but you won’t forget the sound of laughter.