(Rated 4/5)
The last book I was
reading before the coronavirus pandemic hit and all was still ‘normal’ was ‘The
Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage’ by Philip Pullman. It also happened to be the
first book I was reading as we went into that first lockdown during which I
finished it.
The first play I’ve
now seen in our ‘new normal’ post-pandemic was ‘The Book of Dust: La Belle
Sauvage’ adapted by Bryony Lavery from Philip Pullman’s novel at the wonderful
Bridge Theatre thanks to a very good sister-from-another-mister theatre
companion friend 😉
That friend is also responsible for introducing me to Philip Pullman and ‘His
Dark Materials’ in the first place! And I couldn’t be more grateful to her for
doing so. I’m now a massive fan and addicted to Lyra’s story – come on Philip
where is the third ‘Book of Dust’ please – what were you doing in the pandemic
lockdowns?! – and especially fascinated by Human-Daemon relationships and his
ideas around ‘Dust’ and Consciousness, human souls, external manifestations of
we humans in animal form and how he weaves topical issues impacting us all –
climate change, religion, politics etc into his stories.
‘La Belle
Sauvage’ is the story of how 12-year old Malcolm Polstead (Samuel Creasey in
his first stage role) from the Trout Inn – his mother is the landlady - with
the help of pot-girl Alice Parslow (Ella Dacres) rescue our heroin baby Lyra
Belacqua (Adiya or Khalil or Paloma or Sarah or another 6-month old baby human
except in the more dramatic moments when she’s a doll I believe) from floods,
her dangerous parents, the Consistorial Court of Discipline of the Magisterium
and other perils! And of course there are lots of adventures on the way and a
kind of rites-of-passage experience for young Malcolm; not least in the development
of his relationship with the initially relatively cold Alice.
Adapting the fantastic
other worlds inhabited by Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon for the screen is one
thing – CGI can of course play a part – but for the theatre is yet more of a
challenge. And in ‘La Belle Sauvage’ you also need the ability to convince the
audience you have a boat floating along the flood waters. And yes the
production team managed that beautifully. The daemons in this are puppets – in a
similar vein to those in ‘Warhorse’ on stage – all white with golden lights in
their faces. Again all operated so well, though sadly for me something was missing
there. I know Bryony had to make some big decisions in her adaptation – and the
programme includes a fascinating article on adapting for the stage – but for me
the most magical and psychologically interesting aspect of ‘His Dark Materials’
and ‘The Book of Dust’ is the relationships between each human and their daemon
and at times interactions between deamons either in synch or in some ways in
conflict. As a person develops in personality and beliefs their daemon changes
until adulthood when they settle into an animal most reflective of and opposite
in gender and personality to their human counterpart. Malcolm’s daemon Asta was
operated and voiced by Oliva Le Andersen. As Malcolm is pre-puberty his deamon
has not yet settled so Olivia was fairly frequently changing puppets – all done
with ease – but for me Asta was always too separate from Malcolm – as were
other daemons from their humans – to really feel that amazing interconnection
you experience when reading the books.
But that is my
only ‘criticism’ – and I think because I know it’s possible as you can really
feel the power of emotion from the puppets in ‘Warhorse’ as well as the
connection between them and the human characters – and again I understand how
big choices have to be made to stage something like this incredible fantasy.
Overall very impressive, well written, well produced, well performed and lovely
entertainment for humans of all ages.
Do take your own
deamon/spirit and imagination with you 😉
La Belle Sauvage
– Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2022
