Theatre reviews: Educating Rita | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen ****
Educating Rita, Perth Theatre ****
Charlie Bucket, the hero of Roald Dahl’s great story Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, is a little lad living in extreme poverty with his lovely mum and four aged grandparents. He helps their finances by picking over the contents of a nearby rubbish dump, and sings a heart-tearingly poignant song about how, though his stomach may be empty, his house is full of love. When the story was first published, in 1964, it might have seemed ridiculous to think there were any Charlie Buckets still around, in welfare-state Britain.
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Hide AdNo more, though. In our current age of shameful child poverty in the UK, the four young actors playing Charlie in this new Neal Street Productions’ touring version of the story have no shortage of close-to-home examples to draw on, in portraying Dahl’s brave and loving little hero; and at the performance I saw, Isaac Sugden delivered a stunningly strong and moving central performance, warm and graceful as well as poignant, and full of Charlie’s unstoppable spark of creative intelligence.
In Dahl’s familiar story, Charlie sees a chance of better times for his family in a competition to win one of five golden tickets to a tour of the nearby Wonka chocolate factory; and in this production made at Leeds Playhouse – with strong Scottish connections – script by Scots writer David Greig, and directed by former Dundee Rep boss James Brining – the 20-strong company and ten-piece live orchestra give full value to all the vivid tensions of the story, as Charlie wins the final golden ticket, and sets off on his spectacular trip.
The production could perhaps offer a little more reassurance about factory boss Willie Wonka’s ultimately benign intentions, as the story nears its end. Given a performance from Gareth Snook that seems more child-catcher than benefactor, it’s difficult not to worry about little Charlie, as he sets off for what should be an inspiring a final spin in Willie’s strange flying machine. Overall, though, the production offers a magical and magnificent journey, featuring fine songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittnam, and fabulous design by Simon Higlett – as well as a tribute to the power of imagination in tough times that could hardly be more resonant, or more moving.
Willy Russell’s Educating Rita, first seen in London in 1980, is also a story about how human imagination and creative intelligence can change our world. In Martin McCormick’s new production for Perth Theatre, though, it offers some fascinating contrasts between the historic and the familiar, as Liverpool hairdresser Rita signs up for the Open University, and meets her tutor Frank, ensconced in a book-lined study at the local university that, to Rita, seems like heaven.
On one hand, Willy Russell’s play shows marked signs of age. Frank’s frequent sexual overtures to Rita, which she laughs off, would be considered wholly unacceptable today; his drunkenness at work would have him sacked without appeal. And at a deeper level, the kind of liberal arts education that changes Rita’s life is now under profound threat, in universities increasingly run as businesses.
Yet the sense of Britain as a society deeply divided by differences of class, voice and culture is, if anything, even more recognisable today than 40 years ago. And at Perth, Gray O’Brien and Rachael-Rose McLaren do full justice to one of the finest comedies ever written about that gulf and how to bridge it; as Rita grows her wings and flies the nest, and Frank is left to pick up the remnants of a privileged life he barely knew how to value, until Rita arrived at his study door.
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is in Aberdeen until 26 March, then at Edinburgh Playhouse from 29 March-15 April. Educating Rita is at Perth Theatre until 1 April.