Charlie and the chocolate factory
Peter Corry’s staging of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is slick,= (in a good way), professional, watchable. With the Belfast School of the Performing Arts (BSPA) he has created a great ensemble piece via this surprising musical that rivals the recent slice of Tony Macaulay’s autobiography, All Growed Up.
Raold Dahl is of course Mr Subversive so the sweet as toffee opening doesn’t last throughout. We got the hit numbers about chocolatier Willy Wonka and his wannabe follower, Charlie Bucket, performed with enthusiasm by the great chorus who put their heart and pzazz into everything, including the engaging performer in a wheelchair.
Although the narrative concerns Charlie’s dreams of escaping his humdrum, impoverished life with single mum and a full set of grandparents, Willy Wonka is the hero. Or anti-hero as we learn in the middle of the musical. And Mr Wonka was in a way the star of the show, sly, mannered and engaging in the young actor’s account. He sidled on, stylish in green velvet and colourful jacket, showed off about his world class chocolatier status and emerged as the pied piper of the piece. Unfortunately, the kids from round the world who want to see his mysterious, legendary factory via a competition to find gold tickets in his confectionery won’t get to the final chocolate square. Apart from our mini-hero, Charlie, brilliantly evoked by a young performer.
It's a grim or fairly Grimm fairy tale or fable leavened by Dahl’s trademark humour and the sometimes improvised one liner worked well. The American cocky boy who ended up a doll inside the factory television, full of malevolent magic, prompted. ‘Everybody changes once they’ve been on telvision’.
I sat next to a BSPA member, Ezra (9), who was enthralled and had views about the show. He told me “I can see my friends onstage. I would have been in the show but we were on holiday. The singing and dancing are very good and I think Willy Wonka is amazing.! I agreed with the young critic.
The plot played out until it reached what Ezra approved of, a “happy ending”, and we went home humming the tunes and smiling. Peter Corry directed with panache.
Jane Hardy
