Writer: David Walliams
Adapter/Director: Neal Foster
The Birmingham Stage Company’s reputation is secure as an outstanding purveyor of adaptations of children’s books, with Neal Foster particularly adept at making stage versions of Horrible Histories and David Walliams’ books. Gangsta Granny ticks all the boxes, from inspired silliness to nicely judged sentiment, from energetic multi-tasking to crazy costumes and choreography.
The story may be a bit slight to support 110 minutes of stage time (and the loss of ten minutes would be no bad thing), but it is charmingly daft. Ben is 11 years old and has to go to his granny’s every Friday night because his parents are ballroom dance fanatics and this is their night out! Ben finds Granny’s cabbage-filled existence totally boring, but to his surprise she has a secret: she is an international jewel thief – and has the jewels in a biscuit tin to prove it! In the end Ben has two adventures on one night: he takes part in a junior ballroom dancing competition and joins Granny in a daring raid on the Tower of London.
Not what you’d call realistic, but Ben’s character and his attitudes to the old (and to ballroom dancing!) are convincing as well as comically exaggerated. Justin Davies’ wide-eyed performance is perfectly judged, aided by the spot-on punctuation of lighting (Jason Taylor) and sound (Nick Sagar). He combines wild imagination and serious purpose (especially in regards to anything to do with plumbing) in an appealing mix. As Granny Isabel Ford creaks and farts and fusses, serving up cabbage-based dishes that Ben is too polite to say he loathes, then transforming herself in a series of death-defyingly melodramatic accounts of her exploits. Her sense of mischief is infectious, her transformation neatly done, with hints of the old hobbling granny remaining.
The remaining seven members of the excellent ensemble transform themselves in Jacqueline Trousdale’s imaginative costumes (anywhere on a scale from normal to downright loopy), dance wildly to Paul Chantry and Rae Piper’s choreography and indulge in some nifty set changing: three blocks shift and swivel, opening out into beds, a kitchen, a shop and much else.
Sophie Gibbs and Jason Furnival wear the fixed smile of ballroom dancers to perfection as Ben’s parents, she flamboyantly fixated on television dance star Flavio Flavioli, he enjoying a hilarious double as the manic Neighbourhood Watcher, Mr. Parker. Another terrific double comes from Irfan Damani as the absurdly preening Flavio and the friendly shopkeeper with “get one free” bargains that aren’t bargains at all.
Jak Poore’s music, mostly jaunty or mock-dramatic, binds the show together nicely and the evening ends with The Queen, not, as in days gone by, The National Anthem, but H.M. herself insisting that all the kids in the audience get up and dance – which, in true patriotic fashion, they do!
Runs until 22nd January 2022
The Reviews Hub Score
Inspired Silliness
