Jo Caird: Why Can’t We Resist Adaptations of Children’s Classics?

Since
that show arrived in a haze of smoke, steam and five-star reviews,
stage adaptations of classic children’s books have been all the rage.
Autumn 2010 saw the openings of Matilda and
Swallows and Amazons at the Courtyard Theatre,
Stratford-upon-Avon and the Bristol Old Vic respectively. A year on –
during which we were treated to a new production of Nigel Williams‘s
1995 adaptation of Lord of the Flies at the
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre – and both shows are playing
in the West End, having been lauded by the critics.

And
there’s more in store for 2012. While Swallows and
Amazons heads off on tour and Matilda
merrily rakes in the cash with bookings being taken up until October,
the theatre world will be holding its breath for news of the Sam
Mendes-directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
rumoured to be coming to the Palladium later in the year. There are
no confirmed details of the production available yet, but with music
and lyrics by Tony Award-winners Marc
Shaiman and Scott Wittman (the team behind Hairspray)
and book by David Greig, it’s an undeniably exciting prospect.

But
what it is about adaptations of children’s books that is proving so
irresistible to both audiences and critics? Of course it’s partly
down to the magic of the original stories, as well as to the
excellence of the shows themselves, brilliantly ambitious work by
some of UK theatre’s brightest stars (and supported, in the case of
The Railway Children, Swallows and
Amazons and Matilda by public subsidy).
But there’s more to it than that.

This
genre of work is doing so well at the moment, I’d argue, because it
represents the ultimate nostalgia-inducing escapist treat. These
shows are not just popular with the family audiences for whom they
were created, but also with adult theatre-goers who normally wouldn’t
dream of booking tickets for a ‘family show’. And this next bit is
unscientific, but I’ve also noticed that lots of the people getting
excited about this type of show are irregular theatre-goers. I was
amazed to see the enthusiasm with which some friends of mine who
never ever go to the theatre discussed
Swallows and Amazons, for example.

It
seems that in the current climate of economic doom and gloom and
social discontent, there’s just something irresistible about spending
a couple of hours immersed in a well-loved story from our childhoods.
Even the eye-wateringly high West
End ticket prices of some of these shows (ahem, Matilda)
isn’t enough to put people off.

Good
theatre is always escapist to a degree but these shows offer an
additional draw. Not only do they evoke memories of childhood – the
simpler time when we first discovered these stories for ourselves,
long before any notion of the challenges of adult life – but they
also present worlds in which good conquers evil and friendship and
imagination win out (although of course all the stories I’ve
mentioned, except perhaps Swallows
and Amazons, do have their dark sides).

The
economy may be stagnating, heating bills may be soaring and riots may be breaking out on our streets, but
perhaps we should be thankful, because after all, without the Tories, there’d be
no need for all this wonderful theatre.