National Theatre’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’ has been let loose upon Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre this week with gripping effect.
It follows a man returning to his childhood home, finding himself standing beside the pond of an old Sussex farmhouse where he used to play. He’s transported to his 12th birthday when his remarkable friend Lettie claimed it wasn’t a pond, but an ocean – a place where everything is possible…
Keir Ogilvy takes the audience along this thrilling adventure as The Boy. Ogilvy’s reactions to the gruesome beings and happenings onstage cause the audience to immediately relate to him. His commitment to his physicality throughout the production is absolute. Ogilvy portrays the complexity of the young boy expertly, holding the tensions and anxieties out for the audience to explore.
Millie Hikasa’s excitable and magical Lettie Hempstock provides safety within the darkness. Both Hikasa and Ogilvy convey their characters with a childish warmth, with some beautiful moments together within the production. Hikasa has great attentiveness to every detail onstage with her, her spellbinding abilities draw the audience in and allow us to fully feel the magic of the work.
Trevor Fox as Dad is incredibly grounded. A widowed father working hard to try and make it work despite the challenges, makes the moments of violence all the more tragically jarring. Fox’s performance disturbs and delights, skillfully balancing the realism and surrealism to allow the tension to build within his relationship with the boy and the family dynamic. Fox also portrays the boy as his older self, bringing the ticks and details of Ogilvy’s boy into his own portrayal.
Alongside Fox is the boy’s sister, played by Laurie Ogden. Adding further dysfunction to this family dynamic, Ogden’s delivery of the naive and whiny Sis, awards this production a very real and tangible sibling relationship between Ogden and Ogilvy.
Finty Williams plays the witty and slightly batty Old Mrs Hempstock. Williams brings a warmth onstage as the head matriarch within this family, with an otherworldly quality about her. It’s a joy to watch William’s tackle Old Mrs Hempstock’s monologues with tenacity and playfulness.
The final member of the Hempstock coven is Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Ginnie Hempstock. The no-nonsense, practically minded mother of Lettie, Jacobs delivers a solid performance and some well-deserved giggles to lighten the load of this dark production.
Charlie Brooks is horrifyingly good as Ursula/Skarthach, the monster ‘flea’ that follows the boy home and quickly burrows its way into his family and life. There’s something ‘Other Mother’-like about Brook’s presence onstage, which is in keeping with Neil Gaiman’s previous works. Eerily cheerful and monstrously quick, the audience curls up into their seats with terror when Brooks makes her appearance as both her human form Ursula and the grotesque Skarthach.
This production is nothing without its ensemble. Holding a multitude of roles, they physically build this mystical world onstage in beautifully stylised physical theatre, emphasising the production’s magical quality. The stamina and ability of these actors is jaw-dropping, from creating purposely paced scene changes to the colossal monsters of this story. These performers tackle haunting sequences with ease, with an added awareness within the story, producing an endearing but ominous quality to the production as a whole. The ensemble cast as as follows; Daniel Cornish (Alternate Boy), Emma-Jane Goodwin, Paolo Guidi, Lewis Howard, Jasmeen James, Ronnie Lee, Aimee McGoldrick, Domonic Ramsden, Joe Rawlinson-Hunt and Risha Silvera.
Directed by Katy Rudd, this production stuns and dazzles as it sucks you down the wormhole where imagination and reality interlink. Fly Davis’ surreal set design paired with striking lighting design by Paule Constable, and Jherek Bischoff’s breathtaking soundtrack, this production astonishes with cinematic flair and an intoxicating grittiness.
A stand-out aspect of this production is Steven Hoggett’s movement direction. Hoggett’s ability to evoke such emotion through movement has mesmerised audiences production after production, starting as a founding artistic director of Frantic Assembly. Finn Caldwell’s puppetry direction fuses beautifully with Hoggett’s movement style, creating fascinating blends of stylised physicality. Paired with Samuel Wyer’s striking puppet design, the monsters in this story are nothing short of terrifying.
‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’ is a behemoth of a production. With captivating lighting, bewitching set and outstanding movement, the National Theatre never fails to stun with its storytelling. This horror-filled production pulls you out to the edges to question what is reality and what is imagination.
‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’ is running at His Majesty’s Theatre from 22nd – 26th August 2023.
Get your tickets here – https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane/
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