Date of show: 30th December 2017
Place of show: Curve Theatre, Leicester
Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes with interval
Over the Christmas holidays we went to see this play with my two girls and a friend and her son. My older daughter had read the book and bought the book with her. My younger daughter and I had not read the book and so did not really know what to expect.
There were only 5 people in the play. It was fairly relaxed with lots of kids and babies in the theatre. But even for the amount of people there, it was quite easy to hear what was going on. The lighting and stage set up was really good. My younger daughter got scared at one point and ended up on my lap hiding her face.
Synopsis
The play is based on Roald Dahls book. George is an only child, living on a farm and loves reading books. The book he is currently reading is about experiments which he was hoping to try out over the summer holidays when suddenly his grandma shows up to stay for a while. The Grandma is bossy and never happy and generally awful to them all.
One day, George has enough and decides to make a concoction based on what he has read. He doesn’t have all the ingredients but improvises and then tricks his grandmother into drinking it. This causes mayhem as his grandmother suddenly grows really tall. His father tries to cash in on this and wonders how much food they could sell if this happened to all their animals.
George struggles to recreate this potion and in between all the experimenting on animals finds a solution that could brings his grandmother back to normal size. Unfortunately, the grandmother shrinks into oblivion and without much sorrow everyone can go back to their normal lives.
My thoughts
It was a brilliant play and we all really enjoyed. It was amazing how the person who played the dad was also playing a variety of instruments live. There was interaction with the audience which was really good and there were all fantastic actors. I’m really glad I found the time to go and see it.
Adapted by David Wood
Directed by Julia Thomas
Cast:
Lisa Howard – Grandma
Chandini Mistry – Chicken
Catherine Morris – George’s mum
Preston Nyman – George
Justin Wilman – George’s Dad
An accountant and a Mum 