The Little Matchgirl/Malvern Theatres

THE folk tales of Hans Christian Andersen were always pretty dark affairs but this update on a classic story ventures into the inky black and beyond.

Most of Andersen’s yarns were highly moralistic. Anyone who can send a selfish girl plunging into a bottomless void as in The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf was most certainly into punishment and retribution.

And it would seem that nothing changes, for this production by the Shakespeare’s Globe and the Bristol Old Vic is in your face right from the outset, starting with the attempted sexual assault on the Matchgirl and moving on to repeated violence against Thumbelina.

It was no surprise then that a number of parents and children left after the first half. Bafflingly, this piece was described by The Guardian reviewer, obviously filing his/her report from another planet, as “Theatre to snuggle down into on a frosty night.”

Nevertheless, despite all the noir, a supremely talented cast powers the whole thing along at a cracking pace, reaching a pinnacle of absurdity and wackiness with The Emperor’s New Clothes, arguably Andersen’s best known tale.

Niall Ashdown makes for a wonderful, sartorially obsessed despot and pulls off a fabulous visual gag when all is finally revealed.

Sadly though, this being 2018, politics needlessly intrude. We are abruptly informed by a finger-wagging Ashdown that only dictators stage referenda, a loaded comment about Brexit. Really? I would have thought that as far as dictators were concerned, the clue was in the word.

The company also makes the mistake of assuming that their charity is also yours. The call for donations to a couple of causes came across as silly and too right-on by far.

That said, this exercise in fairytale revisionism was a vibrant and thought-provoking piece of theatre, helped on its way by a versatile ensemble of  talented musicians who endowed the whole thing with a European travelling circus flavour.

Without a doubt, truly excellent entertainment… as long as you bear in mind that it’s essentially a play for adults rather than children.

John Phillpott