Theatre reviews: The Secret Garden | Jack and the Beanstalk | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Published on Tuesday 14 December 2010 17:15

THE SECRET GARDEN FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH **** JACK AND THE BEANSTALK KING'S THEATRE, EDINBURGH **** SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS KING'S THEATRE, GLASGOW ****

IF THERE'S one theme that all good Christmas shows have in common, it's the idea of regeneration and rebirth, after a long dark winter of the heart. It's because it fits this pattern so perfectly that Francis Hodgson Burnett's great children's story The Secret Garden, first published exactly 100 years ago, makes such a fine foundation for a Christmas show, despite its lack of traditional festive trappings; and it's good to report that the Festival Theatre's ambitious new production of the Broadway musical version of the book -- first seen in New York in 1991 - emerges as a gorgeous, polished, haunting, intelligent and deeply dramatic piece of music theatre, spectacular in scale, beautifully performed, and powerfully directed by Anna Linstrum, with fine design and lighting by Francis O'Connor and Tim Mitchell.

Set in Yorkshire around the turn of the 20th century, Hodgson Burnett's novel famously tells the story of young Mary Lennox, orphaned - and bereft of the Indian servants who have really cared for her - when a sudden overnight cholera epidemic kills all the adults in the Indian colonial settlement where she has been living with her parents. Sent to stay at the bleak Yorkshire home of her mother's sister's widowed husband, Archibald, she finds herself in a place haunted - literally, in this production - by the pale ghosts of all the adults who died in the epidemic, and by the ghost of her Aunt Lily, whose death has driven her uncle half-mad with grief.

Mary is a difficult child at first, chilly, arrogant, and damaged. But gradually, the kindness of Martha the maid who cares for her, of the garden boy Dickon who shows her the beauty of the moors, and of the gardener Ben, still secretly caring for the locked garden Lily once loved, enables her to bring the secrets of the house into the light of day, and to restore the whole family to life and joy.

It's a complex story that deals in a subtly radical way with a whole range of issues, from the English class structure - and the way it is reflected in language - to the racial politics of Empire.

Marsha Norman's script and lyrics do full justice to the seriousness and joy of the story, catching most of its nuances with impressive energy and invention.

Lucy Simon's music is slightly less successful; some of the music is overwritten, its Lloyd-Webber-romantic timbre becomes a shade repetitive, and there are about three songs too many, particularly in a second half that is slow to change the mood from haunted elegy to forward-looking adventure.If the ghosts of the secret garden hang around a shade too long, though, there's no faulting a superb series of performances from Anna Linstrum's wonderful 20-strong cast, led at the performance I saw by a magnificent Sophie Kavanagh, of Mary Erskine's School, as little Mary. Siobhan Redmond is an elegant housekeeper, Lauren Hood a gorgeous Martha, Caspar Phillipson a memorably haunted Archibald. And Francis O'Connor's great Victorian-gothic set whirls and revolves in tremendous Broadway style, as this fine, moving and haunting show sets off on what could be a long international journey, beginning in Toronto, next year.

After so much dramatic intensity among this year's Christmas shows, though, it's something of a relief to turn to a straightforward feelgood pantomime like this year's Jack And The Beanstalk at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh. Sticking to its tried-and-tested formula of a short, brisk show dominated by Allan Stewart's exuberant performance as Dame, the King's panto this year welcomes back Stewart's traditional sparring-partner Andy Gray, in the role of dopey King Crumble.

The show therefore strikes a much happier dramatic balance than in recent years, romping happily through this great panto story on a fine set by Scarborough panto-makers Qdos, marred only by the usual embarrassingly intrusive sponsorship from Churchill the insurance dog. Andrew Scott-Ramsay makes a glamorous debut as Jack, Jo Freer is a pleasingly plump Princess Apricot. And there's the usual cheerful barrowload of local jokes about the tram fiasco, much appreciated by the rollicking Edinburgh audience, along with fine, energetic performances of all this year's top panto songs, from I Gotta Feeling (Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night), to the Glee anthem Don't Stop Believin'.

Following the sad death of Gerard Kelly back in October, the King's panto in Glasgow is inevitably a slightly more sombre affair; and, it has to be said, a slightly less slick, sharp and enjoyable one. The story is Snow White, featuring a traditional team of seven short people playing the dwarfs; and if their performance is sometimes embarrassingly self-conscious, Darius Campbell's pop-star-to-opera-star appearance as the handsome Prince is far more wooden than the painted trees in the forest surrounding the dwarfs' cottage.

What the show lacks in pace, taste and slickness, though, it gains in sheer heart, as Glasgow actor Gavin Mitchell steps gallantly into Kelly's old role of Muddles the jester, and the whole theatre rises to a five-minute standing ovation when Mitchell dedicates the performance to Kelly's memory.And what's most encouraging is that in taking over the role, Mitchell is already beginning to develop the tradition, as all the great panto performers do. Sometimes, he becomes Kelly, all bendy knees and wild threats to the old ladies in the front row. But at other times, he is himself, forging his persona in the white heat of performance, a new panto star being born in front of our eyes; and if you want a midwinter image of regeneration, and rebirth, then this is one that really matters, for the future of the great Scottish pantomime.

• The Secret Garden until 8 January; Jack And The Beanstalk until 23 January; Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs until 9 January.