His Darkest Materials, Part one
It was a sunny, if bitterly cold Tuesday, when Mr Warlock set off London.
Mr Warlock travelled by train partly to avoid getting lost and partly to ensure that he actually arrived on time surmising that the traffic would be delayed due to the bad weather.
Mr Warlock arrived in London on time, something of a rarity in itself and soon found himself in Waterloo station via the underground, from there is just a short walk to Mr Warlock's hotel. There was something of a language problem at the hotel. Mr Warlock is a native of these fair islands and the receptionist was from some Eastern European country. She spoke fluent, eloquent English, and Mr Warlock spoke some sort gibberish. But having overcome the language barrier, Mr Warlock freshened up ready for the first part of the His Dark Materials plays.
Mr Warlock's hotel was just a short walk from the theatre, when he arrived there was already heaving throng there. Though you might expect, a number of schoolchildren there presumably lucky enough to be on some sort of school outing. Mr Warlock hit the National Theatre's shop buying as much His Dark Materials, related merchandise as his poor wallet would allow.
For the first of the two plays Mr Warlock had an excellent seat just five rows from the front stage. As the lights dimmed Mr Warlock waited for the play to begin.
The play actually begins at the end with an older Will and Lyra sitting in the Botanic Gardens of their respective Oxford's, thus keeping the promise that they made to each other, Will tell us how much he still misses Lyra and Pantalaimon. Lyra for her part reminisces on how they met. And from here, the play begins in earnest. If you've read any of the books you can fully understand that the complexities of the story would be extremely difficult to stage the National Theatre in London is probably one of the only few in the country that could actually to stage it successfully. The National has a stage where a cylindrical part that forms most is the stage can rise up to display a new stage set and this happens quite a bit during the play. Thus, the seamless changes from Oxford to London to Bolvangar and the Aurora Borealis can take place. Also true to the book, all the characters have daemons however, for the main part these are creatures either fastened to the actor's costume or something that they hold in the hands. The main characters Lyra, Mrs Coulter, Lord Asriel, Fra Pavel etc have daemons operated by puppeteers. In fact they do such a good job that he could almost think it was living creature.
I was little bit worried about how close to the story the play would stick given the constraints that they have to do three full books in two plays, each play lasting roughly three hours which works out about two hours per book. Certain liberties have to be made. Whilst remaining true to the stories, the pace of plays is rather fast and if you're not familiar with the books you could perhaps get a little bit lost with who's who and what’s happening. But then I suppose if you weren't familiar with the books you proberly wouldn't be there. Noticeably cut short is Lyra's time in London and the journey to the Antarctic. But all the essentials are retained, such as Lyra's encounter with Lord Boreal at Mrs Coulter's party and of course the gobbers. The first play covers both the Northern lights and the first part of the subtle knife. The biggest casualty appears to be Mary Malone. She is completely missing from the story altogether, being deemed and an unnecessary requirement.
First impressions were little mixed, Elaine Symons takes a little while to warm to as Lyra, which is no criticism of her performance, but it's more to do with the fact that each of us without their own idea of what Lyra looks like and how she acts. Elaine is full of energy, and I was almost worn out watching her bound round the stage. And she does play the feisty street urchin that is Lyra quite admirably. Despite being RADA trained Elaine manages to sound a most as uneducated as Mr Warlock is. Michael Legge is equally as good as the young boy on the run, Will Parry. Despite both of them being I guests in their early twenties, they both managed to convey a youthful vigour, although it's hard to believe that they are just 12. Jamie Harding, who is both the puppeteer and voice of Pantalaimon manages to install a sense of life in the inanimate object that is Lyra's daemon. Leslie Manville, who plays Mrs Coulter doesn't quite convey the sinisterness of the character that the book seems to portray. The puppet that is her daemon, a golden monkey looked suitably creepy. A special mention should go to Alistair Petrie, who played the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison. In order to portray the sense of heightened power that the bear possesses Byrnison’s head had to be held aloft by the actor’s right arm, so the sense, he was acting more with his body than perhaps he would normally.
The first play raced along and ended shortly after Will had claimed the right to be bearer of the subtle knife, and with the consistorial court about to reveal Lyra's hidden name.
With the first play over Mr Warlock headed back to his hotel in Waterloo to get some nose bag freshen up.
(part two later)