Gulliver’s Travels (Pleasance Courtyard Above) is the story we all think we know and then realise we actually don’t. Something about tiny Lilliputians and giants from somewhere or another. This retelling, involving acting, singing, and puppets, is lively and entertaining and moved along swiftly enough to keep the full house – who had been kept waiting for nearly 20 minutes for the show to begin – entranced.
The staging is ingenious and the props intriguingly multi-purposed. The puppets, of course, steal the show – particularly that of Gulliver himself. Just too cute and wonderfully manipulated by the puppeteers.
To fit the whole story of Gulliver’s Travels – and the all-important messages it sets out to impart – into 65 minutes is a triumph and the show and the actors don’t miss a beat.
Just three actors play all the parts and even ‘Gulliver’ occasionally takes on other roles. Each one of them has really honed their craft and they play beautifully together. Although Gulliver is the hero of the tale, the other two players are equally important.
The adaptation is gentle and soothing – we never really feel that Gulliver is in the mortal danger occasionally suggested – and so it has a real feel-good factor to it. It’s not out to shock you or upset you and the 12+ age suggestion feels just right. It’s not a ‘children’s show’ and yet older children will likely enjoy it just as much as the mainly adult audience I was part of.
The ending is, therefore, something of a shock and there were some gasps from the audience. As I said, most of us don’t really remember the Gulliver’s Travels story fully and forget that this is an 18th-century satire – making fun of both the ‘travellers’ tales’ that were fashionable at the time and also, more seriously, human nature. Swift said he wrote it to “vex the world rather than divert it,” and, though I think this adaptation probably diverts rather than vexes, the message gets through and is a suitable cautionary tale for a troubled 21st-century world. And yet it insinuates its message warmly, rather than battering it home violently. I think it is the better for that.
I don’t want to dwell on the late-running of the show – but I think it is testament to the show that, despite quibbles in the line outside beforehand, no one was complaining at the end.
