Review: THE BOX OF DELIGHTS, RSC
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan
Although not hugely familiar with John Mansfield’s 1935 children’s book, The Box of Delights, and only having a vague memory of the 1984 TV series adaptation, we knew enough of the story as an adventure into a world of magicians and time travel to expect to be blown away by the mystery and illusion of Piers Torday’s adaptation (which had previously run at the atmospheric Wilton’s Music Hall in East London) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon.
On paper, it looks like the perfect addition to the Christmas theatrical entertainment calendar. Indeed, the majestic towering setting covered in tarpaulins stretching back on the upstage area behind the venue’s thrust stage gives the space depth and height. As we sat waiting for the show to start, we anticipated a gradual revelation of more and more impressive magical theatrical illusions just as you might see in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in London or the spectacle of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, or The Ocean at The End of the Lane as we have seen on recent regional tours, or even in The Watermill’s recent production of The Lord of The Rings. Such expectations are always dangerous, and the production falls short by comparison with these stagings based on bools that all might have taken inspiration from Mansfield’s original book.
Tom Piper’s design seems stuck between a theatrical experience whereby the trickery is exposed and revealed, and a cinematic experience where the animation and spectacle of the video projections by the amazing Nina Dunn and Matthew Brown dazzle and excite. The framing of the stage with a dilapidated proscenium arch with ladders up each side certainly seems to suggest an old theatre and the removal of the tarpaulins reveals stacks of old wardrobes which double as entrances, windows and prison cells but add little to the storytelling. When the “magic” occurs, the production does not attempt to hide the flying wires, traps, or risers to add mystery, so we remain in a theatre watching performers rather than be transported into another world. The absence of an illusionist in the credited creatives suggests there may not have been an attempt to create real stage magic in the production. Even the ‘Box of Delights’ is an unimpressive brown box that does not generate the awe and delight that we might have expected. despite some glowing light. Only when the wonderful projections cover over the staging do we get any sense of the magic and mystery of the tale.
Against this physical setting, and on the exposed thrust stage with audiences on three sides, the cast have to work very hard to enthral the audience and are often seen running up the walkway exits to speed up scene transitions. The casting too maintains the air of theatricality with the children played by adults, with a comical Jack Humphrey as a very tall and lanky Peter in his school uniform and Mae Munro as the energetic all-action girl, Maria. It is somewhat confusing in the first few scenes too to see Stephen Boxer as both Grandad, Kay Hawker, and the magician Cole Hawkings, and Callum Balmforth as the younger Kay Hawker and his own grandson, but they do at least carry the narrative well. When Molly Roberts appears as The Head, it is rather comical like a C3P0 prop left on a table without real threat or mystery. At times, the show veers towards pantomime, especially in the second half when cast members are removed one at a time by the villainous wolves, Charles (Tom Kanji) and Joe (Nana Amdo-Gotfried), reminiscent of the traditional Ghost bench scene in almost every pantomime.
The inclusion of lots of Christmas carols does give the show a festive air and there are some excellent moments of puppetry with Toby, the travelling showman’s dog, a marvellous Phoenix, and a delightful shadow puppet show. However, this production (directed by Justin Audibert, which was so acclaimed in its 2017 and 2018 productions at Wilton Music Hall) has lost something in its transfer into the grander modern setting of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre where scale and theatricality has replaced intimacy and atmospherics, and the result feels a long show for a young child to sit through and for this reviewer at least, it fell a little short of the high expectations of a magical evening.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
The Box of Delights plays at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford upon Avon until 7 January 2024, with further information here.