The Wizard of Oz

Published Monday 3 December 2007 at 17:05 by Jane Coyle

In just over a month’s time, Belfast’s Lyric Theatre will close its doors in preparation for a complete rebuild. And what better way to give the old building a rousing send-off than with Richard Croxford’s stylish revival of John Kane’s RSC adaptation of The Wizard of Oz?

The palpable sense of enjoyment and commitment among the cast and production team drifts into the audience, with Rachel Tucker’s Dorothy looking and sounding uncannily like the legendary Garland. Croxford makes a seamless job of superimposing Dorothy’s mundane everyday life on the Kansas prairies upon the mysterious world beckoning along the yellow brick road, onto which she steps with beguiling innocence and optimism.

Richard Clements, Conleth Kane and Nick Shorney are the cheery farm boys who are transformed into the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. Richard Orr and Karen Rush’s kindly Uncle Henry and Aunt Em reappear as the Oz Guard and good witch Glinda, while Tommy Wallace morphs with unsettling ease from the spiteful Miss Guitch into the malevolent Wicked Witch, Dorothy’s sinister nemesis. Oh, and lest we forget, Liam Neeson, the Lyric’s patron is there too, as the Voice of Oz.