There’s an endearing streak of nastiness in the works of Roald Dahl, which is, I think, what gives them their timeless appeal. Forget The Water Babies or flower fairies, what children really want is grotesque villains, preferably unpleasant adults who suffer grisly comeuppances. Birmingham Stage Company’s James and the Giant Peach delivers on this magnificently, with a splendidly horrible Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker to be booed, and an endearingly waiflike James (Tom Gillies) for them to bully.
In contrast to such pantomime villains, the menagerie of insects inhabiting the giant peach are friendly, kind and surprisingly musical. Unlike the porcine Sponge and jagged Spiker, Ladybird, Spider, Earthworm, Grasshopper and Centipede are eminently human, neatly dressed in suits and hats and carrying a bewildering range of instruments. Brilliant performers one and all, the ensemble cast kept characters distinct and the laughs flowing. I especially enjoyed the interplay between Chris Lindon’s “cheeky chappy” Centipede and Rhys Saunders’s miserable Welsh Earthworm.
The songs that run through this production really make it stand out- all set to onstage music, with hints of jazz, swing and folk, and lyrics straight from Dahl’s lurid imagination. The songs were spellbinding, whether accompanying the runaway peach as it hurtles to the ocean (dishing out a little poetic justice to the Aunts enroute) or just a list of Centipede’s favourite foods (noodles made from poodles amongst them).
Kids and adults alike will be impressed by this show’s production values. A clever, low-key set transformed effortlessly between New York, the Aunts’ dilapidated mansion, and the interior of a colossal fruit. There were plenty of flashy effects to keep children mesmerised, with enough clever touches for the parents. Puppetry, ultraviolet paint, and hoodie-wearing sharks all superbly captured the whimsy of Dahl’s world - I particularly enjoyed the rhino-related demise of James’s puppet parents.
Ultimately, this is a triumph of a show. The way the incredibly young audience alternated between silent fascination and raucous laughter was testament to how perfectly the Birmingham Stage Company & David Wood have tailored their production. Your 25-year-old correspondent also enjoyed it - I won’t even complain about the audience participation, which managed be engaging without being annoying. Don’t let a 2-hour running time (with interval) deter you, James and the Giant Peach will give your children, and yourself, a fantastically nasty day out.