Danny the Champion of the World
September 30, 2007
Theatre Royal
Roald Dahl understood children and therefore wrote books that held their attention. Certainly the subjects tackled had a dark or nasty sides that children love, such as the children in Charlie and the chocolate factory, Aunts Sponge and Spiker who are flattened in James and the Giant Peach and Miss Trunchball in Matilda.
In Danny he gives us Mr Hazell who is trying to evict Danny and his father from their home and take over their land. Despite having a great resemblance to Alan Turner from Emmerdale, this character is met with hiss and boos when he appears and remains Mr Nasty for the entire show, which runs just over two hours.
Danny lives in a caravan, with no running water or electric, with his widowed father and helps run their small garage and petrol station. But Danny becomes aware of his fathers disappearances at night and finds he is poaching on Mr Hazells land. One night the father does not return and Danny finds he has fallen into a trap and hurt himself. It is while he is in hospital that Mr Hazell arranges for social services to check on Danny which results in an eviction notice, as there is no electric or running water to the caravan.
With the whole town in uproar over this, Danny and his father arrange to sabotage the pheasant shoot arranged by Mr Hazell, which they do with the help of the more than willing theatre audience. Afterwards electric and water is laid on to the caravan so Danny will not lose his home.
This show does not pull any punches, covering subjects such as Dannys dead mother, pheasant shooting and eviction but the original story is so strong that children are held spell bound. I took my five year old to daughter and she was hooked from the start despite not knowing the story. As usual with a Dahl story justice and fairness win and there is a great baddie and plenty of humour, but a child is central to the tale.
The characters are vividly brought to life by an excellent cast and playwright David Wood ensures that he has not tampered too much with Dahl’s original work. (this is his sixth Dahl adaptation).
This is an excellent show to introduce children to the theatre that will appeal to Mums and Dads as well as children. It is always noticeable when children are captivated by the story as the trips to the toilet are few and far between; in Danny I never noticed one child leaving their seat throughout the performance to go to the toilet. In my book you cannot get higher praise
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