When Liesel Meminger enters her neighbour’s library, the books flutter above her like doves. As the crisp white pages shimmer on the shelves, the girl breaks into song – a number called In This Book. It is an example of how seriously this adaptation of Markus Zusak’s magnificent bestseller takes one of the author’s central themes: the power of the printed word.
It is a power that can be used for evil, as it was with every copy of Mein Kampf sold to a population bewitched by Adolf Hitler. And, of course, it is a power that can be used for good.
That is the case for Max Vandenberg, a fleeing Jew whose escape plan is concealed in a copy of Hitler’s book. And it is repeatedly the case for teenage Liesel, the eponymous book thief, for whom stories are an imaginative release, a solace in air raids and a tool of resistance. Serious and acerbic, Bea Glancy (alternating with Niamh Palmer) is tremendous in the role of a child dealt the toughest of hands in the hardest of times.
To tell such a story as a musical is demanding. The slate-grey set by design studio Good Teeth never gets warmer than a muddy sepia. The lighting by Nic Farman is severe. Ryan O’Donnell’s narrator might look like a genial insurance salesman in tie and raincoat, but he is Death in disguise. As miserable lines of prisoners head to Dachau, we know it cannot end well.
There are times when you feel the pull of Broadway in the score by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson, but more typically, they draw deftly on Zusak’s original to push the story forward. Their songs can be sweet and harmonic but never less than earnest.
The libretto by Jodi Picoult and Timothy Allen McDonald also sticks closely to the author’s language and intent, although skipping through so much of the book in the first half makes the second half less focused. Not so, though, in the final moving moments of Lotte Wakeham’s excellent production, assured and courageous, when this grim tale reaches something like a happy ending.
• At Octagon theatre, Bolton, until 15 October.
