Twisted Tales

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 25 January 2011

There used to be a television series of Roald Dahl short stories called Tales of the Unexpected. Twisted Tales at the Lyric, Hammersmith, is much the same sort of thing, but without Ron Grainer’s eerie, unforgettable theme music or that strange gyrating model in muslin.

I’m not sure about this sudden new interest in theatrical horror stories: M R James, Dahl, Susan Hill – they’re all much better in print. And, I’m sorry, but Jeremy Dyson has an absolute duty to tell us which stories of Dahl he’s adapted; and why, and how, he’s cannibalised them.

There is a sort of narrative link with a young boy reading a book on a train with three strange men. One of them eventually shouts at another the night’s funniest line: “But my name is Fortescue, and I went to Eton,” (he drops dead).

But in Dahl’s brilliant, disparate style, each of these short stories has its own atmosphere: the necrophiliac landlady, and the avenging widow – who glories in ...

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Latest User Review

Andrew B - 26 January 2011:

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. ...

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