This Christmas, we are delighted to present Roald Dahl’s classic story The BFG – created by the team which brought you last year’s magical festive show A Christmas Carol.
The Big Friendly Giant captures dreams and keeps them in bottles for children to enjoy whilst they sleep. He is unlike other giants. For a start, he doesn't like to eat people!
Join the BFG and his new best friend – little orphan Sophie – and help them save the children of Britain from the child-eating giants, Bloodbottler, Fleshlumpeater, Bonecruncher, Meatdripper, Childchewer, and Gizzardgulper.
An undisputed national treasure and the world’s favourite children’s author, Roald Dahl has enchanted young minds for more than twenty five years with stories that fire the imagination, bring dreams to life and release squeals of delight. We are thrilled to bring this wonderful adventure to life on The Lyceum stage for all the family to enjoy.
All in all, it was actually lots of fun - a fantastical farting fable for all the family!
By the time the cast return after the finale to perform a medley of cheery Christmas songs, The BFG has whisked the audience to a land of imagination and back in a colourful and charming show which deserves to be a giant success.
It looks and feels great, and the tone is controlled confidently.
t is engaging, entertaining and enjoyable with a lot to celebrate.
Verdict: Swish, sparkling take on Roald Dahl, with strong puppetry and plenty of subversion.
At its heart, it features a truly magnificent BFG in Lewis Howden, relishing every nuance of Dahl’s gorgeous word-play; and with the help of some delightful puppets and animations, and a final medley of Christmas songs to inject some seasonal cheer, this BFG delivers a fine 90 minutes of children’s theatre, fast, funny, genial, and often lovely to look at, too.
It feels miserly to criticise such a good-spirited Christmas show, but despite an energetic and full-throttle ensemble effort, the overriding feeling which remains is that this is a charmless attempt to reimagine a story that may be best preserved in its original form.
There are times when Dahl's story more resembles something out of Viz comic than a well-respected children's classic. This is something that makes proceedings infinitely more appealing to adolescents of all ages, helped along nicely in a bright, modern take on the show by Jamie MacDonald's quasi-disaster movie animation and some neat puppet work that truly shows the things that dreams are made of.
This production is full of festive spirit; it celebrates the differences between people of all shapes and size, regardless of who or what you are.
Christmas 2014: David Wood's musical The BFG set for Edinburgh shows
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh from Friday November 28, 2014, until Saturday January 3, 2015. More info: www.lyceum.org.uk
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