|
|
|
|
|
Neal Foster as Aunt Alberta and Annie Cordoni as Stella. Pictures: Mark Douet Awful Aunty The Alexandra Theatre **** David Walliams has a penchant for creating characters that are . . . well . . . weird doesn’t really go far enough, perhaps bizarre would be closer, and Aunt Alberta even goes beyond that. She really does put the Awful into the titular Auntie, a creature with all the empathy and compassion of hungry, bad tempered, cornered rattlesnake. Alberta is the guardian, or perhaps that should be more accurately, guard, of her niece, 12-year-old, almost 13, Stella, who has been in a coma after being orphaned after a tragic road traffic (pause for questionable thought here) accident which killed her parents, Lord and Lady Saxby. That leaves Stella as the new Lady Saxby and owner of Saxby Hall, a stately pile much coveted by a certain psychotic aunt who rescued her from the crash and has nursed her back to health. An act of wildly out of character kindness that surely had nothing to do with a clause in his late lordship’s will states that if Stella becomes brown bread (explanation to follow) the hall shall be sold and the proceeds distributed to the poor, which tends to kibosh Alberta’s usual and somewhat more permanent method of solving problems by, should we say, just burying them. An added problem, incidentally, being that she has gambled the family fortune away on (checks notes) tiddlywinks . . .
Matthew Allen as ghost Soot and Stella The Birmingham Stage Company has built a formidable and richly deserved reputation in adapting Walliams’ books for the stage (Gangsta Granny, Billionaire Boy and Demon Dentist) and its founder and co-director Neal Foster gives us a real in yer face Alberta, turning her/him into the panto dame from Hell. She is aided by her loyal owl Wagner, a Great Bavarian Mountain Owl she raised from an egg presumably after her time in the First World War when she fought on the German side, not for any nationalist or ideological reason, merely because she preferred the style of the uniforms. Puppeteer Emily Essery provides the power of flight twit twoo our feathered friend with Wagner set to be the star attraction at Alberta’s planned Owleum, her dream of an owl museum, which it turns out is not a role Wagner is too keen on because . . . well, that would be telling and has a touch of the brown breads again. Saxby Hall is an ancient old pile so obviously has to be haunted so we have Soot, how’s yer father, gor blimey, can you Adam and Eve it, played by Matthew Allen. It seems Soot was a young lad working as a Cockney chimney sweep who was smoked to death when someone lit a fire while he was up a chimney leaving him brown bread . . . dead, gorrit? Bumbling around the hall is the old retainer Gibbon, there since, well, forever. The problem is that his brain hasn’t really retained that much as he mows the carpets, takes a tiger skin rug for a walk and toasts boots for breakfast in a series of amusing vignettes by Zain Abrahams. But we are forgetting the real star of this tale, the heroine, Stella, who, in this tale, has the novel distinction of actually being normal with Annie Cordoni guiding her through the madness surrounding her. On Press night sound could have been better, it created indistinct articulation as my old English teacher would have had it, with some dialogue lost, a perennial challenge for sound engineers on first nights in a new location on tour but there was no doubting the infectious enthusiasm and verve of the cast driving the story along. My grandsons, 13 and nine, thoroughly enjoyed it, with Soot and Gibbon being their favourites and when it is an adaptation of a children’s book for a young audience, they, and their views, are the ones that matter. Jokes about flatulence, pooing, peeing or indeed any bodily function will always bring gales of giggles from a young audience, and indeed the biggest laughs of the night came about through a joke about a toilet and a sheet of glass and . . . just don’t try it at home. Throw in eating worms, cockroaches, slugs and the like and you are entering the world of gruesome delights that have children rolling with laughter and Walliams and Foster tap into that rich vein of fun with obvious glee, and why not. Productions aimed at children is some of the most important theatre around. Children are the next generation of theatre goers yet in an age of streaming, of screens, of social media and whatever else is on the horizon, live theatre faces real competition so shows like this give them fun and laughs, a touch of theatre magic and plenty of happy memories to grow up with for the future. Jaqueline Trousdale’s design is a clever affair with a huge central revolving block which acts as rooftop turrets, cellar, library, study whatever is needed with any required changes made hidden in the rear and masked by the bumbling appearance of Gibbon, whose loony ramblings really did serve a purpose. Jason Taylor’s lighting was unobtrusive and added to the action but came into its own with a very clever, oh so effective fading of Soot as midnight signalled Stella’s 13th birthday, and as we all know, once you become a teen, you are no longer a child and can no longer see ghosts. A superb bit of traditional stagecraft. Aunty will be as awful as ever to 19-10-24, Roger Clarke 17-10-24 |
|
|
|
