Shipshape and Bristol fashion: Childrens classic brought imaginatively to life
You can’t but help feel a certain nostalgia for the more innocent times depicted in Arthur Ransome’s pre-war series of Swallows and Amazons books. A time when, unlike today, play not Playstation, was what fired young minds and bodies.
In an age when most parents wouldn’t dream of letting their children out alone after dark, never mind go camping overnight, there’s something liberating about watching the young Walker family set sail on stage for adventures around the islands of the lake district in Tom Morris’s fun, and imaginative, production of the children’s classic with a script by Helen Edmundson..
On a par with The Famous Five for camaraderie and all-for-one, one-for-all (admittedly middle class), musketeer spirit, John, Roger, Titty and Susan, sail their boat Swallow to what they take to be a deserted island and make camp.
Once there however they find themselves at war with the pirate Blackett sisters “the Amazons”, played with brio by Celia Adams and Sophie Waller, From there they become engaged in a series of territorial adventures, pacts, and finally end up accused of a crime they didn’t commit. by a writer they believe to be a retired pirate.
A cast of adults play the children, and a fine fist they make of it, with burly, bearded Stewart Wright getting most of the laughs as seven year-old Roger. There are also some fine songs by former Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon, played live on stage by musicians doubling as stagehands..
In terms of design and staging, Morris, who worked on National Theatre stage hit War Horse, opts for less is more. So blue ribbons become the lakes; hand held puppets worked by stagehands cormorants; the Swallow a few bits of wood you really do believe gets caught up in a terrible storm. And a treat it works too, mirroring the power of the imagination that lies at the heart of the tale and the whole production.
A show for all the family, Morris’s production is as involving as it is entertaining, drawing you into its world and making you wish you too were there on the island joining in the spirit of adventure. “Swallows and Amazons forver!” indeed.
Swallows and Amazons, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat Feb 4. Tel: 0131 529 600.
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