The Magical Faraway Tree
Re-telling and sending up Enid Blyton’s fairytale, young actors James Dunnell-Smith, John Woodburn and Joshua George Smith jump straight into The Magical Faraway Tree and Dick’s quest to the Land of Magical Medicines in a bid to save his dying mother.
The company shun props or scenery but the three boys demonstrate versatility, working between their characters at pace, dressed in a selection of presumably ironic t-shirts.
There is no sense of urgency from any of the cast and the piece wafts along to fill its hour-long slot. The comedy is immature and sloppily performed. I’m glad there was a girl tittering away in the front row throughout the performance I saw, otherwise much of the show would have been met with little more than stoney silence from the rest of the audience.
I fail to imagine what kind of home crowd Sleeping Trees Theatre needs to get the laughs they are trying to land. Watching The Magical Faraway Tree I wasn’t encouraged to imagine much at all really.