The orange hero’s great, but the preaching ain’t
ADVENT family audiences would once have been given something with a Christmassy message. At the Corbynist Old Vic they are being fed the modern religion of environmentalism.
Playwright David Greig has adapted the 1971 Dr Seuss story The Lorax. Visionary then, the story attacks deforestation. The Lorax is a strange creature who speaks for the trees and the animals who live in a forest being destroyed by a factory owner called The Once-ler.
As in all Dr Seuss tales, there are surreal characters and infectious rhymes. Director Max Webster duly mounts a spirited, colourful production with music; but the message ain’t half rammed down the kiddies’ throats. Mr Greig says in a programme interview that ‘the last thing you want to do in a Christmas show is preach — you want to be joyful’. It is a pity he did not heed his own advice.
Lean, liquid-limbed Simon Paisley Day is perfectly cast as our hesitant villain, The Once-ler. The Lorax turns out to be an orange, walrus-moustached puppet, voiced by Simon Lipkin. His fellow puppeteer Laura Cubitt spends almost all her stage time squatting. She must have fab thigh muscles.
Good touches include a trio of gospel-singing lawyers, some puppet fish (one drinks a cup of tea), and a couple of warehousemen in wigs that are pure Alan Titchmarsh.
The Old Vic’s new boss, Matthew Warchus, has already given us a rant about state schools and Eugene O’Neill’s anti-capitalist expressionist play The Hairy Ape. Under previous artistic director Kevin Spacey this venue was known for top-end, character-based drama. I wonder how the theatre’s plutocratic sponsors, including arch-polluter Richard Branson, like the new approach.