The set shows a stone-fronted building with a balcony on the upper floor, three doorways on the ground and a courtyard where most of the action takes place. Here the junior arm of Oxford Youth Theatre present their ambitious new production, a comic tale of adventure adapted from Salman Rushdie’s allegorical novel, written soon after he went into hiding in the early 90s.

Haroun lives in a nameless city, famous for manufacturing and exporting sadness. His father, Rashid, is an inspired storyteller, nicknamed ‘The Ocean of Notions’ and ‘The Shah of Blah’. But when his wife leaves him, Rashid’s stories dry up and Haroun, feeling guilty for questioning the point of telling stories that aren’t true, begins a quest to help his father. This takes him to Kahani in search of the Ocean of the Streams of Story, the source of all stories. Kahani has light and dark sides and the ruler of the dark and silent land of Chup is polluting the Ocean of the Streams of Story in an effort to control and suppress the population. Haroun’s quest is to put an end to this and so reconnect his father to his storytelling inspiration.

Director Rachel Capell brings varied ingredients to this winding tale, some highly visual. The story is presented using a combination of dialogue, narration which switches between characters, and scenes of imaginatively choreographed dance and movement interspersed with the terse and rhythmic dialogue of Rushdie’s novel. First night nerves were perhaps manifest with occasional stumbling over lines and the comedy was sometimes lost by hurried delivery, but allowances should be made as the dialogue is challenging to actors of this age group. The main players, most notably Laila Aziz as a confident and compelling Rashid, and Tom Guy as the irrepressible Haroun, carry the production along through any moments of doubt.

The best scenes are the carefully choreographed set pieces using the strong visual images woven into Rushdie’s story. We are taken on the terrifying bus journey with Butt the driver to the valley of K. There are frenzied scenes inside the bus station with its rhyming warning signs, as the drivers try to make it as difficult as possible for the passengers to board the right bus. Swirling scarves across the stage depict the separate story streams mixing and merging into countless variations. Then there are the poison blenders at work synthesizing the poisons which are to pollute the source of all stories.

Finally we go to the Old Zone, where the most ancient stories originate, and see the giant plug, designed to plug the hole in the seabed where stories come bubbling up. There is a final battle with Cultmaster Khattam-Shud of the land of Chup, the dark side of Kahani.

It is at times difficult to follow the complex progression of Haroun’s adventure, especially as some of the exchanges were lost through either a too snatched delivery or too resonant sound effects. The rhythmic dialogue demands a quick fire delivery and the actors do marvellously well in very challenging circumstances. Visually, the production provides images which linger in the memory, bringing out the theme of creative imagination emerging triumphant against the forces of control and conformity.

Kathryn Karakaya, 20.05.03