Tuesday 31st January 2023
Curve, Leicester
‘It’s a rip in Forever.
Where anything is possible’
In recent years theatre goers have been relishing what has turned
out to be a golden era for British literary adaptations. Theatre makers have
mined seemingly unadaptable source novels for a spectacle of riches that has brought
a new wave of visually and thematically imaginative plays with broad appeal to
audiences nationwide. While the West End has profited from recent successes
such as the record-breaking Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Sheffield
Theatres’ acclaimed Life of Pi, at the forefront of this cultural trend
is the National Theatre, proving that they remain champions of innovative,
entertaining and accessible art. Building upon such juggernauts as War Horse
and Curious Incident, their latest mega-play sees Writer Joel Horwood
and Director Katy Rudd bring to life Neil Gaiman’s 2013 novel The Ocean at
the End of the Lane. The result is an enchanting blend of heartfelt magical
realism with more than a touch of whimsy and a delicious dash of horror.
Gaiman’s story focuses on a Boy (played by Daniel Cornish at
this performance), who’s world is turned upside down by the Hempstocks, a trigenerational
family of magical women. On the day of the Boy’s twelfth birthday his family’s lodger
kills himself via carbon monoxide poisoning, stealing the family car and
plunging them into crisis. While his widowed Father works extra shifts to make
ends meet, he urges Boy to be a grown up. This mainly involves feigning stoicism
and outright lying to protect his younger Sister (Laurie Ogden). Rejecting
this, the Boy finds adventure and escape via his new friend Lettie Hempstock (Millie
Hikasa) and her otherworldly farm. For a story featuring wormholes, shapeshifting
‘Fleas’ and journeys through an ocean of eternity the plot could seem impenetrably
dense, however in Horwood and Rudd’s hands the piece never seems
overcomplicated or abstract, thanks to some deftly deployed exposition and
excellent pacing.
The story is framed as a memory play, beginning and ending
with the grown-up Boy reminiscing about his visits to the farm, aided by a
familiar yet strange figure. The blurred lines between memory, imagination and
reality are exquisitely played upon by Gaiman, Horwood and Rudd – a dream isn’t
just a dream, if a person imagines something it exists as it is real to that
person. Similarly, the imagined magic of stories (notably, Alice in Wonderland
and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) are utilised by Gaiman and
co. as powerful forces against both real and imagined monsters – Boy reads
every night to conquer his fear of the dark, but he later uses these stories he’s
come to memorize to help him evade a monster that has infiltrated his home, in
a feat of simple but gratifying ingenuity. The story is a perfect fit for
theatre, where we likewise experience the boundary-blurring,
imagination-enriching mesh of the actual and the fantastical.
Rudd makes fine use of Steven Hoggett’s movement direction and
Samuel Wyer’s puppetry, animating high-concept theories and phantasmagorical
creatures with some truly captivating stagecraft. There’s also a great scene
featuring misdirection trickery, wherein multiple Ursulas (Charlie Brooks)
appear to torment the Boy. Fly Davis’s enchanted wood set is atmospheric, shifting
from being gnarly and imposing to embodying an ethereal dreamscape. I was also
struck by Jherek Bischoff’s original music – not something that often stands
out in a play – but, like Adrian Sutton’s scores for War Horse and Curious
Incident, the music here feels like a character in its own right. From 80’s
synths to melting string harmonies and menacing rhythms, Bischoff enhances the
action and feeling presented onstage.
It is telling that amid all the supernatural goings-on
(mind-reading, parasitic nannies; intergalactic vultures) and all their
theatrical realisation, it is the mundane horrors in Ocean that prove
most nightmarish, such as the punishment dealt to the Boy by his Father for
disobeying him, and the eery image of the suicidal lodger, hosepipe affixed to
his face like an uncanny gasmask. Gaiman’s story succeeds because the magic in
the plot is so deeply rooted in the real-life issues of 1980’s working-class
Britain; Boy first suspects that his new friend is not as she seems when he
regurgitates a fifty pence piece in his sleep, and the demonic Ursula feeds off
the family’s financial hardship and the want of a wife/mother figure. The tale
is also an excellent example of a coming-of-age narrative; we are repeatedly
reminded that nothing is as it appears on the outside, most poignantly in the
case of grown-ups merely being the children they always were, trapped in an adult
shell of deception. Growing up is a pervasive theme amongst young adult
literature, and from the juxtaposition of Boy refusing to ‘be a man’ and Lettie’s
anguish at being unable to grow older, to the ways that the older Boy remembers
and mis-remembers his fantastical childhood, here it is addressed with an exhilarating
mix of wonder and terror.
While the themes and 80’s setting of Ocean are strikingly
reminiscent of smash-hit Netflix series Stranger Things, Horwood has ensured
that the play retains Gaiman’s very British sensibilities. Memorable lines are
peppered throughout the play, from the whimsical (‘Monsters are things that
everyone is scared of – Then what are monsters scared of?’) to some wonderfully
droll one liners from Finty Williams’ matriarchal Old Mrs Hempstock (‘A cup of
tea is a human right’; ‘Do you think she’d do something so common as die?’). The
National Theatre has once again produced a play that will appeal to all ages
(although very young children may be a little too frightened) and perfectly
marries plot, spectacle and feeling. Gaiman has articulated the very personal
yet universal experiences of loss, love, hardship and change, with a masterly
touch. The bittersweet ending certainly leaves audiences enamoured with the
characters and wishing to linger in the uncanny world of the Hempstocks a while
longer.
For full tour details please visit: https://oceanonstage.com/#tour
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| The cast of Ocean at the End of the Lane Credit: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg |
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