★★★★☆
Jonathan Swift wouldn’t have been familiar with some of the ingredients tossed into this children’s adaptation — the music of Earth, Wind & Fire and Lionel Richie, for instance, wasn’t around in the 18th century. But he might well have approved of Lulu Raczka’s desire to take a risk or two.
What you get is a beguiling combination of technology and old-fashioned, guess-what-happened-next storytelling. In a world where state-of-the-art special effects are only a TikTok away on our smartphones, Jaz Woodcock-Stewart’s production invites a young audience to use its imagination to fill in the blanks on the canvas.
In this version of the satire, Lemuel Gulliver is a modern child (engagingly played by Mae Munuo) who, tired of the household chores imposed by her overworked mother, disappears into her own world. Alternative reality in Brobdingnag and beyond is a way of passing the time. (Parents will be glad to hear that the moral of the story is that you can’t shirk real life for ever.)
Using hand-held lights and cameras on Rosanna Vize’s ever-evolving set, four actors play games with perspective, transforming Munuo into a giant among the Lilliputians. At times her image is projected against the rear wall; occasionally it is squeezed into a doll’s house. Jack Phelan’s video design and Owen Crouch’s sound create no end of illusions, augmented by Jess Bernberg and Joshua Gadsby’s lighting.
Knockabout humour holds the attention of a young audience, who aren’t averse to chatting back to the actors. Jacoba Williams’s Empress becomes a gurning Brummie, and Gulliver’s attempts to join in an outdoor disco ends in chaos when her dance steps cause mini earth tremors.
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There’s an unabashed dark streak too. Death casts a shadow again and again, and it’s difficult to banish thoughts of what’s happening in Ukraine during the scenes of conflict between the Big-Endians and Little-Endians.
Could the 90-odd minute piece be trimmed by a quarter of an hour? Probably. There’s a slackening of the pace towards the close, and I suspect the visit to the sterile, science-obsessed realm of Laputa will leave some children baffled. Still, the irrepressible Leah Brotherhead and Sam Swann complete a cast who become multitudes. If you want an alternative to the multiplex this Easter, you know where to go.
To April 16, unicorntheatre.com
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