The Edinburgh Festival Theatre has found its niche as it takes on the role of producing house for the second year running. Big budget musicals are what its stage was made for, and this imaginative production delivers with style.
Anna Linstrum’s direction goes straight to the heart of Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s darkly saccharine version of the classic children’s story. She uses Gavin Mitford’s choreography to get inside the not-always obvious story maze. Francis O’Connor’s big stage design makes great use of a revolve to drive the story on, from the darkness of cholera-ridden India to the vast mansion where orphan Mary Lennox is sent.
The star find of the production is youngster Sophie Kavanagh, who brings a strong voice and impeccable movement to the role of Mary. Her straight back and engaging stage presence are the constant, while around her the adult performers generate the sense of loss that permeates the production.
Caspar Phillipson as Archibald Craven and Sophie Bold as his dead wife, Lily, provide a particularly memorable duet in A Girl in the Valley, with both in good form. And Graham Bickley casts a suitably jaundiced shadow over the whole as Dr Neville Craven.
A thoroughly entertaining production that leaves few dry eyes in the house.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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