'Swallows and Amazons' Review

Malvern Festival Theatre


SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS (Children's Touring Partnership)

Let your imagination run wild this week at Malvern Festival Theatres with the incredible new production of the children’s classic Swallows and Amazons. From the same production company as Goodnight Mister Tom and directed by Tom Morris, who co-directed the smash hit War Horse, this show has brilliance stamped all over it and it certainly delivers in the bucket load!

Arthur Ransome’s original story has been magically adapted for stage by Helen Edmundson for an immensely talented cast of thirteen actor musicians to creatively tell the tale of a group of children and their fantastical adventure on Wildcat Island one summer, as they join forces with marauding pirates to defeat the treacherous Captain Flint and recover his lost treasure.

The joy in this production is endless. It is visually spectacular and a delicious feast for the senses. The wonderfully inventive use of props and cast perfectly capture a lost sense of childhood that is injected into the audience who switch from spectator to participant as the play progresses. Every single cast member is brilliant, without exception, and demonstrates the most superb talent, not only as actors, but accomplished musicians and vocalists who enhance the storytelling with Neil Hammon’s delightful music and lyrics.

This is definitely a production that you have to experience and it will spark the imagination of young and old. Swallows and Amazons runs until Saturday.

'On Golden Pond' Review

Malvern Festival Theatre

ON GOLDEN POND (Middle Ground Theatre Company)

Middle Ground Theatre Company present another mighty fine production, this time with a revival of Ernest Thompson’s emotive On Golden Pond. This 1978 off-Broadway play was turned into the immensely popular, Oscar winning film in 1981, starring Henry and Jane Fonda and the delectable, Katharine Hepburn.

The lone, mournful wail of the Loon calling to its mate, on Golden Pond, evokes a true sense of the enduring love shared between the play’s main characters, Ethel and Norman Thayer, a couple in their twilight years spending another summer at their lakeside retreat. This particular summer of 1978, while preparing for Norman’s 80^th birthday, brings the unexpected arrival of their prodigal daughter who leaves them with a gift that will change the course of their lives forever.

Michael Lunney, not only directs an endearing production, but also provides a stunning set, which, when twinned with the atmospheric sound and lighting, creates a wonderfully enchanting idyll. Stefanie Powers, fresh out of the celebrity jungle, does a superb impression of Katherine Hepburn’s Ethel, who is plagued by creatures of the forest as well as her infuriatingly pessimistic husband, brilliantly played by Richard Johnson. The love, affection and tenderness these two characters share is remarkably believable and what makes this production so watchable. Elizabeth Carling, as their daughter, Chelsea, has incredible stage presence and is part of a great supporting cast made up of Victoria May, Kasper Michaels, Graeme Dalling and Tom Roberts.

This is a delightful tale that will whisk you away to a gentler pace of life and tug on your heartstrings. Go and see it!