The Time Machine – Bolton Octagon

Writer: Steven Canny & John Nicholson

Director: Orla O’Loughlin

The stage is set for a new adaptation of H G Wells’ sci-fi novella The Time Machine – despite the three actors on stage having started rehearsals for a different play entirely – they were contracted to perform a new version of The Importance of Being Earnest. Things take a very quick change in direction when we find out that Dave is actually the great, great, great-grandson of H G Wells himself and that the author himself was a time traveller and that Dave has found the very machine which propels its user through time. Queue a section that tries to explain several paradoxes surrounding the time-travel notion.

The concept of the play within a play isn’t new, in fact, it’s a premise that actor Dave Hearn (best known as an original member of Mischief Theatre Company) is probably most familiar. The evening zips by and the just over two-hour run time goes by quickly enough – as the laughs and jokes come along fast and furiously. Arguably this leads The Time Machine into its own paradox – while the comedy makes the piece highly enjoyable, it’s also the very thing that holds the production back.

The small cast of three Dave Hearn, Amy Revelle and Michael Dylan are on fine form, their energy and comedic timing are spot-on, and they don’t let it slip for the duration of the performance, but for this reviewer, the story of The Time Machine is just as unfamiliar when leaving the theatre as they were upon entering, something that is often the case with comic adaptations of classic novels. Wells’ original story is sparsely flitted into here and there but seems to be shoe-horned in and put on the back burner for another comic routine or joke. As the japes keep coming the more you realise that what’s being presented is nothing new, the gags are well-worn – Ironically you start to know what’s going to happen before it happens on stage, almost like we have seen it all before.

One can’t help feel that director Orla O’Loughlin and writers Steven Canny and John Nicholson have tried too hard to find a framing device for their production which allows the production to go off-piste a little too much, instead of arguably presenting the production is a “goes wrong” manner which then allows the story to shine a little stronger.

While The Time Machine isn’t going to revolutionise the genre, it does give it a fair stab (If you know, you know!) there are some genuinely enjoyable moments and one does leave the audience having had a good time… but one can’t shake the feeling that time travel should be a little more original and exciting overall.

Runs until 22 April 2023