Wonderman is a startling and unsettling look inside the head of the World’s No.1 Storyteller, Roald Dahl. Dahl is best known for his incredible collection of children’s books: such classics as The BFG, Matilda and The Witches. He did, however, start his writing career by penning many equally inventive short stories for adults. To mark the hundredth anniversary of Dahl’s birth, Gagglebabble have produced a play in which these early stories spill forth from the author’s shell-shocked brain.
The setting is a private hospital ward. Dahl, played convincingly by Adam Redmore, is bandaged and delirious on the bed. Anyone who has read Boy knows that Dahl was a fighter pilot in World War II. Slowly Daf James’ script reveals the truth about Dahl’s narrow escape from death in the skies. Before that we are shown how the hallucinations he suffered while in hospital gave rise to some original and bizarre stories.
A nurse turns into The Landlady, a sinister collector of men who you would definitely not want to make your tea. A doctor becomes The Man from the South, a brutal gambler who sets the stakes too high. Dahl himself transforms into a hick from the Virginia sticks whose first encounter with pork almost brings him to sticky end. The multi-roling is excellent and the transitions are exceptionally slick. Matched perfectly with the sound effects and brief blackouts, characters seem to disappear and swap instantaneously. Costumes change in a blink of an eye and a set of gruesome props add to the increasingly surreal tone.
Billed as A Play With Music, Wonderman is better described on the flyer as ‘gig-theatre’. The cast are surrounded by a three piece band – piano, double bass and drum kit – who, in turns, engage with the characters, provide sound effects, sing and of course play. The band is augmented as cast members pick up and play violin and cello at different points. There are a lot of songs, but the format definitely prevents Wonderman feeling like a musical. The score, by Lucy Rivers (who plays the The Wife) juxtaposes dislocated nursery rhymes with Latin rhythms, droning aeroplanes and lyrical melodies to good effect.
The end creates a real moment of beauty, emerging from all the preceding madness. We are left with an image of Dahl continuing his writing and creating all the wonderful stories that came after his time in the air force. It is widely thought that Dahl was such a good author for children because he never patronised them. He was never scared to scare them. Gagglebabble stayed true to his vision. I was petrified.
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES