It was OK - somewhere between a two and three star show. Good work from Selina Griffiths and the lovely George Rainsford, but - and you could blame second-night nerves or under-rehearsal, the young boy fluffed his lines and didn't project his voice. I agree that the show didn't quite hit the mark - but how indeed could it possibly compete with reading Dahl's prose? With the exception of the tale of the man who nearly lost his finger, there was no real sense of menace or threat. A word to the young girls in the second row of the Stalls who chattered, rustled and ate their way through the production: are you quite ready to go go the theatre, if you can't put your sweets away and shut the f**k up for 80 minutes? You're a disgrace to yourselves and your college. - Andrew B
26 Jan 11
I Love Roald Dahl and Jeremy Dyson, so thought this would be an ideal combination. I enjoyed it, but some parts felt a little dragged out. Dyson has stayed quite faithful to the original stories (the joke about the stuffed dog and parrot in The Landlady are in the original TV adaptation at least). I just expected something with a quicker pace, but I did only see the second performance. Hopefully improvements will be made in time. If nothing else, it's driven me to buy the complete box set of the original series! - Tracey
26 Jan 11
Saw this on Saturday with 3 friends, and we all agreed it was disappointing. The final story of the public-school flogging was overlong, slow and gratuitous, and didn't add to the collection. The acting was overall very good, with some genuine shocks, and certain scenes held the tension very well. All in all, some of the endings were obvious, some flat, some worked, and we were glad we only paid £10 for preview tickets. - Dee
26 Jan 11
I have fond memories of reading these tales and watching the TV adaptation (as I write, I can hear the theme tune in my head!), though it feels like forever ago and I can’t remember the detail of any of them. What Jeremy Dyson has done for the Lyric Hammersmith is to link a number of the tales together ‘framed’ by the arrival of a stranger into the carriage of a commuter train (I think this is the adaptation rather than written by Dahl, but I could be wrong) and it’s surprisingly effective. Some scenes were exceptionally funny, some head-turning nasty and one set in a public school positively chilling. It’s a fascinating concoction and it’s beautifully staged by Polly Findlay ,with a revolve changing scenes quickly, and played by a small cast of six. I particularly loved Selina Griffiths’ turns as grotesque predatory landlady and revengeful wife and George Rainsford and the boy (I don’t know which one was performing on the night we went) as the public school bully and his ‘fag’. There’s no set, just a few props and a great use of sound (by Nick Manning) for atmosphere and tension. I was surprised when it ended after 80 minutes; this left me with the feeling that I’d just watched work in progress or unfinished business – as much as I enjoyed what I saw, I left feeling hungry. I can see why you wouldn’t want to halves, but the one half could maybe be more substantial – another tale or two? - Gareth James
