In Roald Dahl’s book ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ George mixes all kinds of different ingredients, including lipstick, pig pills, toothpaste, toilet cleaner and brown gloss paint, together to make the marvellous medicine that he feeds his grumpy granny in an attempt to make her nicer!
The Birmingham Stage Company have mixed together Roald Dahl’s great story, catchy music, swirly lights, brilliant puppets and lots of laughs to make a very marvellous show which I went to see at the New Theatre on Tuesday night.
The props were very clever. I particularly liked the little chickens and the pigs. The chickens were puppets that were moved by the actors and, although the pigs were just floppy soft toys, the way the actors moved them made them really come to life. In my opinion the props were very well thought out. I also liked the bright, often fluorescent, colours of all the special ingredients and the sound effects added when they were mixed together were really funny!
One of the cleverest things was the way that they made George’s granny grow into a giant and then shrink so small that she disappeared before our very eyes! Having read the book before I saw the show I was trying to figure out how they would do this and they pulled it off marvellously! One of the chickens also grew to the size of a human and it was really funny when the giant chicken ran around in time to the crazy music!
My favourite character was George’s grandma as she was so mean and horrid to George and that made me laugh a lot. The cast was full of energy and encouraged lots of audience participation. Everyone joined in with the fun, repeating the spells and laughing out loud – especially my brother!
As it is the centenary of Roald Dahl’s birth this year there have been lots of Dahl-related shows and activities in his home city of Cardiff. Along with the Quentin Blake exhibition at the National Museum and Wondercrump at the Wales Millenium Centre this was one of my favourites.
In Dahl’s words this show was gloriumptious (“pure marvellousness”). I would give it ten marks out of ten and would thoroughly recommend it to everyone including grumpy grandmas!
newtheatrecardiff.co.uk