Christmas is the perfect time of year to take a trip to the theatre. This year instead of the usual pantomime we went to The Dukes in Lancaster to see a delightful production of the classic tale, The Borrowers.
‘The Borrowers’ is a fabulous adventure based on the famous books by Mary Norton. The tale of little people who live under the floorboards of an old house is a much-beloved classic. It’s a joy to watch The Dukes bring the story to life. Many of us will remember this story from our youth and the young ones simply enjoyed it for what it was.
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Though little set was used throughout, that which was used was just magical. Giant Jammy Dodger, huge cotton bud and buttons set the scenes perfectly and again gave the scale of the world we were experiencing. The audience all belly laughed when Aunt Val’s huge foot appeared across the stage trying to stamp on the borrowers. It’s clever and creative, making full use of the theatre’s bijou size and levels.
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The brilliant cast brought the story to life, and the impressive set truly transported us into the world of the tiny borrowers.
The cast is small, but talented and each played their part so well. It’s captivating from start to finish. I was expecting my children to get the fidgets, but they were fully engaged and mesmerised throughout.
The gifted cast brings the story to life, Howard Chadwick plays the role of narrator and ‘older’ Eddie wonderfully. Matthew Heywood played the Human Bean Boy Eddie, the pairing worked very well, and the younger audience were able to catch on quite quickly to their characters. I particularly liked the scene with Eddie’s enormous glasses and how they were used to scale the height difference between the Borrowers and the Human Bean.
Arriety played by Amy Tara, is a true joy to watch. Her mother, Homily played by Katie Erich bounces around the stage and is hilarious, everyone wants to be like Homily, fearless and full of adventure. Darren Jeffries, known for his previous role in Hollyoaks, portrayed Pod the dad with such depth, truly capturing his character’s anxiety.
The production is energetic and is just shy of two hours (including an interval) but there was no loss of attention or enthusiasm from the younger or older audience.
My six-year-old was completely engaged throughout, and the narrator’s performance was simply brilliant. I had wondered if the children would have been able to follow the concept, but it was cleverly delivered, and they soon grasped how the cast were demonstrating the difference between the size of the borrowers compared to the humans (human beans).
Although it is not a Christmas performance, a trip to the theatre always gets me in the Christmas spirit, and ‘The Borrowers’, I felt, was a fun and highly entertaining show. It has something for everyone, young or old, the show was also wholesome and heartwarming. The Dukes Theatre has truly outdone themselves with this adaptation and I cannot recommend it enough.
I would definitely recommend catching this show before it ends!
