The production opens when a middle-aged man returns to his childhood home in Sussex for his father’s funeral where, inevitably, he is overcome with nostalgia for his formative years. Plunged into the past, he recalls painful memories of a childhood negated by an emotionally unavailable dad (Trevor Fox), plagued by financial strain, and an annoying, naive little sister (Laurie Ogden) who, lacking a necessary authoritative figure, is left to run amok. The protagonist, named only as ‘Boy’ (Keir Ogilvy) turns to fantasy books to escape his meagre existence and attempt to cope with the recent death of his mum which places further strain on the fractured familial relationship.
Supernatural elements soon encroach into the world of the play as the boy meets Lettie Hempstock (Millie Hikasa) a zany and headstrong girl, who along with her mother (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) and grandmother (Finty Williams) is responsible for protecting the world from evil. On the Hempstock family farm, the duck pond represents an ocean of possibilities, a portal between realities and a “rip in forever”. As Lettie says, “In there, everything is possible”. Succumbed to elements of magic and fantasy, evil soon forces its way into the boy’s life in the form of a deeply unsettling and sinister stepmother figure, aptly named Ursula. Charlie Brooks truly shines in this role and succeeds in positively terrifying the audience.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a breathtaking, intricate, and flawless adaptation of Gaiman’s novel. One of the highlights was the inclusion of stage magic, expertly coordinated by magic and illusions director and designer Jamie Harrison. In a particularly vivid and frightening scene, Ursula taunts Boy with a spectacular disappearance act, seemingly appearing in numerous places at once. It is a genuine delight to experience spectacle in the form of real-life magic, and I am still reveling in dumbstruck awe from being unable to figure out how they pulled it off. This feeling of astonishment is accentuated by the presence of an ensemble, who deftly handle terrifying puppets and perform beautiful moments of evocative choreography which succeed in transporting us to another world. The icing on the cake is the ominous soundscape created by composer Jherek Bischoff and sound designer Ian Dickinson, which creates an underlying chilling feeling that brings each element of the production together.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is easily the cleverest work of theatre that I have ever seen and succeeds in surpassing every already high expectation. Met with rapturous applause and gasps of genuine shock and delight, this production richly demands and rewards your attention and is certainly not one to be missed.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane runs until the 27th of May at The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.
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