His Dark Materials – Parts 1 & 2
Any adaptation from book to stage risks a few common pitfalls: long monologues of exposition, cutting beloved characters, and the difficulty of doing justice to scenes which came to life in readers’ imaginations. Nicholas Wright‘s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, a trilogy of fantasy novels themselves loosely based on Milton’s Paradise Lost, manages to overcome the worst of these pitfalls, but in this new production something is lost in translation.
His Dark Materials concerns the adventures of Lyra and Will, children from different worlds, as they travel through parallel universes and are caught up in a quest to defeat the heavenly Authority. Ruari Murchison‘s design is minimal, which could be very effective in a different space – however, the Festival Theatre’s stage is too big to be well-suited and it looks empty most of the time. The action scenes are similarly disappointing, with little to no dramatic tension. However, there are some wonderful moments; the sequence in which Lyra and Will travel to the world of the dead is absolutely magical – the only point at which the sparse, dark stage seems purposeful.
The cast, most of whom are playing multiple roles, turn in solid performances with a few exceptions. Charlotte Asprey‘s Mrs Coulter has none of the seductive evil of her literary counterpart, and often comes across as a blustery buffoon. As Lyra and Will, Amy McAllister and Nick Barber are facing the challenge of portraying the development and maturing of pre-teens who begin the story at age twelve. Barber is better at this, but both actors overcompensate for their age, and McAllister completely lacks subtlety – Lyra should be rough around the edges and on the brink of maturity, rather than bratty and juvenile. The real stars of the show are the puppets used to represent daemons, the animal companions which follow those in Lyra’s world, brilliantly crafted and engineered by theatrical puppetry company Blind Summit. Especially praiseworthy is Gerard Carey as Lyra’s daemon, Pantalaimon.
His Dark Materials tells the story of its source material well, but as a dramatic piece it falls slightly flat. Definitely worth seeing for fans of the trilogy, it is not for anyone who can’t handle sitting for six hours in exchange for an occasional flash of brilliance.
– Colleen Patterson
