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Theatre listings > The Selfish Giant. Adapted from the story by Oscar Wilde. Adaptor & Director - Andy Arnold. Set, props and costume designer - Jeni Campbell. Lighting Designer - trane house red. Music Arranger - Alasdair Macrae. Songs - Muireann Kelly and Colourstrings International. Cast - Here. Company - The Arches Theatre Company Website. Venue - The ArchesTheatre, Argylle St, Glasgow 0141 565 1023. Dates - 6 Dec - 7 Jan 2006. 6 - 9 Dec at 10:30am & 1:30pm / 10 & 11 Dec at 1:30pm & 3:30pm / 13 - 16 Dec at 10:30am & 1:30pm / 17 & 18 Dec at 1:30pm & 3:30pm / 20 - 22 Dec at 10:30am & 1:30pm / 24 & 26 Dec at 1:30pm & 3:30pm / 27 - 30 Dec at 10:30am & 1:30pm / 2 - 7 Jan 2006 at 1:30pm & 3:30pm. Run Time - 1 hours 10 mins no including an interval. Reviewer - Thelma Good. Balance out due to riches. Told for the very young this Arches' production is crowded with lots of imaginative props, characters, songs and lighting effects. Indeed the audience is in danger of sensory overload but it's the puppet children who play in the absent Giant's garden that above all keep order in the story. There are four of them Polly, Tolly, Wally and Molly each one an individual, a boy and a girl each being voiced and moved by Izzi Joss and Laura Cameron-Lewis, the most noticeable being the deep voiced, near ned but soft at heart Wally. He's always got just the comment. The children in the audience greet them with delight whenever they turn up. Stewart Ennis also helps the young watchers to settle and feel comfortable in the arched space where trains rumble over head and surprising things, including clearly creative Designer Jeni Campbell's flowers and outsized bugs move. It has several magical moments as the garden goes through different seasons and songs are sung. When the Giant, Alan Tall, returns from his seven year visit to an ogre in Cornwall who's had trouble with a wee boy called Jack and his beanstalk, what might be a too scary experience when the Giant throws the children out, works fine. What does not, is the boy who melts the giant's heart. In Wilde's original story the child has resonances of the Christ Child, of St Christopher carrying him on his shoulder and of his particular death, just as the garden has an Eden quality. I would agree Christian faith should not be as widely assumed as once it was but It is a pity to see this episode in the story not given enough potenial significance by being crammed into too short a moment. It's a good retelling of The Selfish Giant but the lack of generosity to an element of the story and the overdrive sensory experience due to the overly richly propped production leaves it over stuffed and undigested. © Thelma Good 13 December 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast - Narrator - Stewart Ennis, Frost/Garden Creature - Izzi Joss, Snow/Garden Creature - Laura Cameron-Lewis, Giant/musician - Alan Tall and Musician/assistant narrator - Alasdair Macrae. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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