Giant West End Reviews

A flawed play then, but one that at least tries to address thorny key issues of the day in politics and art. Will it, as the best theatre should, change minds or, if that is too much to ask, at least challenge mindsets? That question is subjective an...

A flawed play then, but one that at least tries to address thorny key issues of the day in politics and art. Will it, as the best theatre should, change minds or, if that is too much to ask, at least challenge mindsets? That question is subjective and in the eye of the beholder, but I doubt anyone seeing the play will turn on the radio the next morning to hear of more carnage in Gaza or Southern Lebanon and form a new view on its origins or its potential outcomes. Nor do I believe anyone will see Matilda, Charlie or James any differently, nor even the infamous Witches either. Maybe a parent or two might offset the thirst many kids develop for Dahl with some of Charles M ‘Sparky’ Schulz’s Peanuts cartoons. And that would be a good thing.

As debut plays go, Giant has some very experienced hands behind it. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, who runs the Bridge Theatre, and written by Mark Rosenblatt, a director for more than two decades, it sounds like cheating to call it a debut although it...

As debut plays go, Giant has some very experienced hands behind it. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, who runs the Bridge Theatre, and written by Mark Rosenblatt, a director for more than two decades, it sounds like cheating to call it a debut although it is indeed Rosenblatt’s first foray into writing for the stage. You would not know it from a slowly brilliant first act, stupendously performed by its cast, which mixes fact with fiction in its dramatisation of a scandalous moment in the life of the children’s writer Roald Dahl.