IT IS interesting that the prodigious output of Enid Blyton continues to sit near the top of popularity charts in children’s literature, regularly beating the likes of Dahl and Rowling. Her Malory Towers series, penned from the late 1940s through to ‘51, have even seen modern day sequels appear in print.
These stories were loosely inspired by the boarding school that Blyton’s own daughter attended, but their enduring appeal stems mostly from the timeless themes they embody and the fact that they are packed full of the strong female characters that Blyton was something of a pioneer at creating.
For her stage adaptation, director Emma Rice has drawn on a handful of key plot lines from the canon of novels, setting the overarching story in the period of the ‘First Term’ book, but she surrounds the whole within a framing device. Rather than trying to update all of the material, she begins with a modern day girls’ school setting, in which a group of bullies are taunting a new arrival by stealing her book. After a kinder girl intervenes, we are swept back in time via a train journey to the post-war setting of Malory Towers, as a new term is about to begin.
Here we meet newcomer Darrell Rivers, in a feisty performance from Robyn Sinclair, as she gets to know the classmates she will be sharing her time with. These are more fairly described as archetypes than stereotypes, and in Rice’s adapted versions (in which she conflates both stories and characters together to create a manageable drama) they certainly each appear to stand for various distinct personality traits.
Bethany Wooding, Eden Barrie and Molly Cheesley are Sally, Mary-Lou and Alicia, while Zoe West is the heroic Wilhemina ‘Bill’ Robinson and Anna Soden has the unenviable task of becoming the petulant Gwendoline Lacey, who refuses to fit in and defends herself with a wall of spite. The cast is completed by the multi-tasking Stephanie Hockley, who brings us the elegant French tones of Irene Dupont whilst also acting as onstage musical director, heading up the rest of the cast’s instrumental and vocal performances from the piano.
All of this plays out on a picturesque set by Les Brotherston, which incorporates some beautifully designed mapped projections from Ian Ross. The windows, on what is at first an exterior of the school, transform to bring us a variety of backdrops, but for a couple of key scenes they open up to reveal a stage within a stage, which allows for a complex clifftop rescue to take place with huge imagination and a nice touch of humour provided by some puppetry integrated with the action.
Structurally, the narrative has a satisfying arc, taking us through the gradual relationship building towards a powerful and poignant dramatic climax, when we discover the true reason behind Gwendoline’s abrasive aloofness. There is also a proper cliff-hanger to take us into the interval, and a neat return to the 21st century in the closing epilogue.
There is very definitely an air of nostalgia about this adaptation, which embraces the jolly-hockey-sticks cuture of a 1940s Britain that still hankered for its pre-war memories. But it also succeeds in taking a theme about the physical and mental toll that war takes on families to create a strong message concerning the importance of talking, listening and understanding.
This is theatre that works equally well for both young and adult audiences, and is a beautifully made piece of storytelling that honours the spirit of its much loved source material.
Following this week at Liverpool’s Playhouse, the Emma Rice Company continue touring Malory Towers via Cambridge, Richmond and Guildford, before closing its current run at Alexandra Palace in London.
Rating: 4 stars
Review by Nigel Smith
