The Tin Drum

 I read Gunter Grass' fabulous, difficult and amazing book when I was about 15, needless to say I didn't get all the references then, but it did result in a period of reading his other books and a lifetime respect for this beautifully anarchistic work about the weirdly wild Oskar.

Needless to say I was very excited to hear that someone felt able to take on the huge challenge of translating this to the stage and hence, even though we could only get seats at the rear of the top gallery, off we went to Bristol.

Well, as the programme points out (not that the audience should need to read the programme) the breadth of the book is way too large for a play and its style is too chaotic - and so, as with many adaptations, they chose a story that would take the audience through some of the key early points of Oskar's life. This is a great approach but for me it failed to either stitch together a story arc I could engage with or reflect the real horror of the world Grass depicted through character, action and style.

So, while this is a great, watchable and clever show that a lot of people around me thoroughly enjoyed, the nod to The Tin Dum was insufficeintly strong for me to enjoy it - that's probably my problem rather than the show's but I must review as I find, I left more flat than elated .... ahh well.