Little Otik

Published Thursday 29 May 2008 at 11:20 by Thom Dibdin

The suitably surreal quality to Vanishing Point’s adaptation of Jan Svankmajer’s film to the stage doesn’t quite get it to the truly dark place that it might. Kai Fischer’s inventive design and crepuscular lighting bring the earth of the woods right into the block of modern flats where Czech immigrants Karl, played by Sandy Grierson, and Louise Ludgate’s Bozena languish, childless.

In realising the story of how the couple find a wooden root which they adopt as little baby Otik, but which then turns into an all-consuming monster, this is excellently done. Ewan Hunter’s puppetry apparatus provides a convincing representation of Otik, while Grierson and Ludgate are quite the distracted couple, for whom a silly idea turns into a nightmare.

Vanishing Point have used the extra resources afforded by NTS co-production wisely in the design and expanded cast. Pauline Goldsmith and Gary Mackay are nastily intrusive as the Meadows, who live next door, while Ann Scott-Jones is note-perfect as Mrs Hawthorne, the busybody downstairs who sees everything. Andrew Melville is the slightly creepy older resident, Mr Ash.

It is with the Meadows’ daughter Elspeth (Rebecca Smith, making her professional debut), that this both triumphs and falls short. With superbly naturalistic presence, Smith does everything asked of her in fulfilling the integral narrative role: telling the fairy story of Otesanek on which this is based and providing a naive, child’s eye view of what is going on. For all its black humour, it is the adaptation that fails to make the final shift of focus - from surreal fairy tale to truthful representation - that would make this a truly horrific piece.