Review – His Dark Materials
Date Reviewed: 24th April, 2009
Venue: The Lowry
Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company and the West Yorkshire Playhouse have put together this production, covering Philip Pullman‘s cult trilogy in two parts. Judging by the amount of young people at the Lowry, they have succeeded in getting the target audience into theatres to see the show.
The show opens with two of the lead characters discussing what happened earlier in their lives. This discussion tactic is used throughout the show to keep the story flowing. Unfortunately if you’re a His Dark Materials virgin like me, this isn’t enough.
Things that are mentioned in passing are not emphasised enough to make sense of later parts. The problem comes in trying to condense three large novels into six hours of theatre and still have it contain the necessary plot to retain the feel of the story. If you are familiar with the books, as was the friend who came with me, you can fill in a lot of the gaps for yourself. However, much of the play may still come across as a series of disjointed scenes.
The performances are excellent throughout. Amy McAllister as the principal character Lyra Belacqua succeeds in moving from the poised young woman in the beginning scene to a twelve year old as the story moves to earlier in her life. Her physical movements are much more that of a pre- to early teen than a woman. Nick Barber as Will Parry also has the opportunity to bring out those physical differences. The one other character who appears throughout is Lyra’s ‘daemon’ Pantalaimon, superbly brought to life by Gerard Carey.
The rest of the sizeable cast double and triple up as various characters, mostly successfully, although in a couple of places I found this confusing.
The daemons (animal totems and companions for each person) and the armoured bears are created through puppetry. Blind Summit developed the puppets and have done a brilliant job in conceptualising an already set image. Credit must also go to the actors who are controlling the puppets that really do become characters in the play rather than additions.
Ruari Murchison‘s stark black set is innovatively enhanced with benches and curtains to provide the various locations. Directors Rachel Kavanaugh and Sarah Esdaile use this and their excellent company of actors to great effect.
Overall this is a very good attempt to bring a modern cult novel to the stage, but at three hours for each part, and even then having a plot that at times seems to jump from scene to scene, it’s not perfect.
Maybe some things are best left to the imagination.
-Helen Jones