Review Roundup: THE BFG at Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Royal Shakespeare Company is presenting The BFG, based on the novel by Roald Dahl and directed by RSC Co-Artistic Director, Daniel Evans. This darkly comic and mischievous new stage adaptation by Tom Wells, with dramaturgy and additional material by Jenny Worton, runs at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 7 February 2026.

The production visits Chichester Festival Theatre from Monday 9 March – Saturday 11 April 2026, after which it will transfer to Singapore’s Esplanade Theatre for a limited run from Wednesday 22 April 2026, in a new co-producing partnership with Singapore Repertory Theatre and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay.

The full cast includes Parkey Abeyratne, J.R. Ballantyne, Sonya Cullingford, Ailsa Dalling, Fred Davis, Elisa de Grey, Lottie Johnson, Philip Labey, Helena Lymbery, Shaun McCourt, Corey Mitchell, Aki Nakagawa, Richard Riddell, Luke Sumner, Onioluwa Taiwo and Ben Thompson, Sargon Yelda.

They are joined by Elsie Laslett, Ellemie Shivers and Martha Bailey Vine in the role of Sophie and Maisy Lee, Charlotte Jones and Uma Patel in the role of Kimberley.

One extraordinary night, a young orphan named Sophie is snatched by a giant and taken far away to Giant Country. 

There she learns that human-eating giants are guzzling 'norphans' the world over. But she soon discovers that her new friend, the BFG, is different – he's a dream-catching, snozzcumber-munching gentle soul who refuses to eat humans. 

While other giants wreak havoc, the BFG ignites Sophie's imagination, and they devise a daring plan to save children everywhere. In the end, the smallest human bean and the gentlest giant prove that a dream can change the world. See what the critics are saying...

Mark Lawson, The Guardian: The performers are impeccable under the direction of RSC co-head Daniel Evans. Yet with the BFG and baddie giant Bloodbottler divided between an actor, a puppet and four on-stage puppeteers, coherent characterisation can be lost; Paddington: The Musical more seamlessly combines acting, animatronics and voices projected from backstage. Showing the complexities of theatrical funding now, The BFG is a co-production with Chichester Festival and Singapore Repertory theatres. Audiences will have enough fun but, while intermittently showing the RSC’s artistic power, this sadly doesn’t feel like the giant hit its finances need.

Emmie, Theatre & Tonic: This production of The BFG represents some of the finest work delivered by the RSC that I have ever witnessed. A true masterpiece of theatrical stagecraft, it weaves together a stunning blend of artistry. There’s the evocative score and ingenious puppetry to its lighting, set, costumes, illusions, and video projections. The seamless collaboration between the creative team, cast, and stage crew brings this timeless story to life with spectacular imagination and precision which will leave even the youngest of audience member in awe of what is unfolding on the verstalie space has this theatre has to offer.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: Wonderful, but at other points, it feels like the focus gets lost; as when we’re required to watch both the human and puppet versions of the other bruising giants slug it out, diminishing the menace of the vicious “Bloodbottler” in particular. Likewise, although there’s a beautiful sequence in which a feather-like luminous “dream” magically darts about the auditorium, only to be caught in BFG’s net, the preoccupation in the story, about how our dreams relate to our subconscious fears, feels under explored. Sophie, BFG and the Queen too (a redoubtable Helena Lymbery) are all struggling with loneliness, but a deep sense of inner-life is lacking.

Peter Ormerod, WarwickshireWorld: Bringing all this to the stage requires skill and vision, of which director Daniel Evans and his team evidently possess limitless supplies. Visually, the show is a marvel, a world of colour and light that draws frequent gasps and often beggars belief. Key to it all is a brilliant and wholly convincing depiction of scale: the characters sometimes appear as humans and sometimes as puppets, miniature or gigantic, manipulated with almost uncanny lifelikeness. None of this feels gratuitous or gimmicky, but rather a reflection of the assured excellence that suffuses the production.

Average Rating: 77.5%