Swallows and Amazons

What joy to leave a theatre with a beaming grin on your face and a warm glow inside. As a boy I loved Arthur Ransoms books, so my memory was fuelling my expectation of this production, and I have to be honest, I did wonder how relevant it would be for a modern audience. I also worried that those behind it would feel a need to modernise. Thank god they did not!

Set in a time when children played outside and parents did not fret over the possibility of perverts and pedophiles, the Walker children set off on an adventure that sees them battle the elements and enemies in the most delightful way, so delightful it had me thinking how impoverished a child’s life is in these days of computer games and enforced incarceration.

Helen Edmundson has beautifully captured the mood and the language of the period, and the cast brilliantly present the modes of speech and manners of that time.

This is clearly not a musical either but a play with songs, and where a musical would use dance this has movement which is used not to fill a gap but to progress the narrative. The representation of the two boats is so simply and beautifully executed that they are totally believable. In fact the whole performance has an air of gentle and enchanting reality. Neil Hammond’s score has much of his trademark wit and whimsy and a timeless quality that works so well in this timeless piece that evokes an age when imagination and invention where kings, where a broom pole could become a mast, a garden cane a reed bed and a blanket a sail. Brilliant ensemble playing from the entire cast make this a work of real joy, an example for a younger audience that both in theatre and in life, we do not need computers and gimcrack wizardry to be transported to delights, and for older generations a nostalgic journey to a time when a good book could happily fill the hours.

Chichester Festival Theatre, 18 January 2012

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