Does a Monster Live Next Door?

Published Monday 6 August 2007 at 12:30 by Thom Dibdin

Dark as the Grimms in its outcome but with a decidedly chirpy telling, Tall Stories’ tenth anniversary show sees toymakers’ daughter Maud confront her fears. Lesley Cook is perfect casting as Maud, who wakes up in fear of the monster trying to get into her attic room every night and spends her life helping her parents make toys.

Caroline Garland creates a bright contrast to Cook’s studious seriousness as the narrator, detective Frieda, who arrives in the night in response to Maud’s ‘Help needed’ sign. Cool in a modern, knowing kind of way, she hangs out in Maud’s bedroom trying to solve the mystery of the monster and opens locked doors with her skeleton key.

Where this excels is in the storytelling. Without ever needing to change Isla Shaw’s neatly designed attic set, the pair conjure up Maud’s sad world, the neighbours to her claustrophobic cottage and the somehow frightening view from her window into a beautiful garden with a stream at the bottom.

The final revelation, however, is too glibly stated to do justice to its momentous and dreadful nature. To be this brave, director Toby Mitchell needs to find even more engagement in the telling and a better pacing of the climax.