At the Sherman |
| Sherman Theatre Company- The Selfish Giant , Sherman Theatre , December 21, 2005 |
| He wasn’t a particularly angry giant, well not always, but he was very, very selfish. He didn’t deserve to have such a beautiful garden. He was so selfish in keeping it all to himself and not letting the children play in it. Set designer Tina Reeves had made a delightful, really colourful and of course a very beautiful garden right in the centre of the Sherman Arena Theatre stage and the young audience, this charming production is provided for 3 –6 year old children, many visiting the theatre for the very first time, sat entranced around it. The deep green grass lawn was covered with many large flowers of every imaginable colour and there were trees, trees with blossom, trees with peaches and trees with seeds in packets ready to grow the next lot of flowers. They were very pretty and very clever trees – they were big umbrellas and the children in the play, acted very well by Rhiannon Meades, Nick Wayland-Evans, who was also the giant and Ben Harrison, opened them up so that we could see all the pretty things hanging beneath them. All the ‘children’ in the play played musical instruments and made lots and lots of different sounds. Ben was playing his guitar to the children as the rest of us walked into the theatre. He wanted to play Christmas songs but the audience kept asking him to play ‘Amarillo’ which he did for a bit and that was great fun. He was joined by Rhiannon playing an accordion and Nick with his trombone. They played original music written by Lucy Rivers who we often see as an actress in Cardiff. Her music was very jolly and the children in the audience had great fun joining in with actions and words to the Giant Song. For a long while Ben and Rhiannon and Nick had been able to enjoy playing in the giant’s garden as the giant had been away, staying with his friend the Cornish ogre but now he was back and he was furious to find the children in his garden and he roared at them to get out and he put up a notice ordering them to stay out. The children were very sad at this, as there was nowhere else that was as safe or as lovely for them to play. They couldn’t do anything about this but nature could. Nature devised a magic scheme to make the giant suffer and eventually realise that it was a bad thing to be selfish and it did him no good at all. There was frost and snow, a singing bird and a magic boy who all played a part in teaching the giant not to be selfish. A lot more things happened but if you want to see them you will have to visit the giant’s beautiful garden to find out. Take a small child with you and wonder at their delight. Oscar Wilde’s story from which director Phil Clark has adapted the play is a much more charming and moral tale and it is interesting to note that Clark has removed the Christian references in the original, this may contribute to the slight lack of overall focus to the production; it did hold the attention of its young audience but could have involved them much more into the story. |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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