Joel Horwood’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s magical realism novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, is a realistically magical spectacle of amazement and delight, writes Michael Holland.
Being new to this genre, my pragmatic mind missed much of what was happening, but I was mightily impressed at what I was seeing, which was all thanks to the team behind the puppets, puppetry, costumes, lighting and sound. So much good stuff for Director Katy Rudd to work her own magic with.
We begin with the suicide of the lodger of a family that lost its mother a year before. Dad (Trevor Fox) sends his Boy(Keir Ogilvy) home while he deals with the police, but he is befriended by Lettie Hempstock(Millie Hikasa) who takes him to her house where she lives with two other generations of Hempstocks; her mother Ginnie(Kemi-Bo Jacobs) and her grandmother Old Mrs Hempstock (Finty Williams). Boy quickly realises that Lettie ‘knows things’ and that this dynasty of sorceresses are all a bit weird in this house of imagination and wants to return to his own home to be safely squabbling with his younger sister (Laurie Ogden) and reading the books of childhood escapism that he loves so much, instilled in him by his much-missed mother.
If only life was that easy when you’re twelve. Instead, he is allowed to venture to the edge of the forest to summon up demons with Lettie and allow the bad witch Ursula (Charlie Brooks) into his home as the new lodger.
That did not go well for Boy because now the demons he had unleashed were all after him, and the main one was in the heart of his home and loved by his dad and sister. Trickery and magic erupt indoors as the whole house seems to be out to get him, but by using knowledge gleaned from his own books he manages to escape to the Hempstocks’ farm where they would help him fight the next battle.
Not my genre at all but by now I was fully enthralled in this eye-catching spectacle where bangs and flashes created scares and shocks to make us jump and scream.
The monsters in this phantasmagorical extravaganza could match any CGI beast I’d seen on screen, as the oohs and aahs from the audience testified. And when our protagonists dive into the ocean to escape I knew I wanted to revisit the books of my own childhood where rabbit holes and wardrobes were portals to other worlds.
I’m not sure I’d want a wormhole in my arm where demons could tunnel in and out, though I think I would like a family of good witches at the end of my street.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is ideal for the discerning young reader and the adult who never grew up. And also for old sceptics who still have an inner child ready to be liberated.
Noël Coward Theatre, 85 – 88, St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4AP. Until 25 November 2023. Times: Mon – Sat 7.30-m; Thur & Sat matinees 2.30pm. Admission: £15 – £125
Booking: oceanonstage.com – 0344 482 5151
