Here be: a dastardly villain disguised as an artist; a top-secret formula; a hidden tunnel leading to the ruined castle on Kirrin Island… just the sort of elements you might hope to find in any adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels. What this new musical version lacks, though, at present, is Blyton’s dramatic drive. Where she tucks her moral messages into the children’s adventures, Elinor Cook (book) and Theo Jamieson (lyrics and music) mostly intrude theirs via songs of introspection tinged with self-pity that dam the flow of the action. However well delivered by the actors (and they are), these numbers come across as worthy, dull and overlong (made worse, on the day I attended, by a sound mix that drowned singing voices in the bass rhythms of the otherwise excellent live musical accompaniment).
The strengths of director Tamara Harvey’s production lie in its atmosphere and its performances (this is one of her last at Theatr Clywd; next year, Harvey leaves to become joint artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside Daniel Evans, currently at Chichester Festival theatre, co-producing this show). We are magicked through the story’s varied locations by Lucy Osborne’s multifaceted design, evoking places and spaces through combinations of visual synecdoche (oars for a boat, branches for trees) and colourful projections (waves on sand, mathematical formulas racing across a wall). The puppetry, if not always crisp, is beguiling: a gull swoops, rabbits hop, a seal peeks over a rock (designed and directed by Rachael Canning).
Focusing on the “five”: the three holidaying siblings, played by young adults Dewi Wykes (Julian), Isabelle Methven (Anne) and Louis Suc (Dick), are individually and collectively good fun. Maria Goodman, as their cousin George (who won’t answer to her given name, Georgina), is a jaggedness of fierce independence, while her companion, Timmy the dog, jumps, wags his tail and saves the day, just as he ought (with a little help from puppeteer Ailsa Dalling). Among the adults, the dastardly villain, as ever, gets the best number: stopping at nothing to get Uncle Quentin’s secret, world-saving formula for new, green energy, Kibong Tanji’s Rowena owns the stage. Given a few kind cuts, this new musical might really sing.
At Theatr Clywd, Mold until 15 October, then at Chichester Festival theatre, 21 October-12 November
