I have to confess I hated the first 15 minutes! But slowly and cleverly this production won me round. I wasn’t comfortable with the initial juxtaposition of modern characters with one mysterious man; when we went back in time, the show came together and the mysterious man was revealed in the final scene to complete the story.
The music was entrancing Celtic echo, played sensitively by a great band – I was disappointed that the musicians were not named in the programme, they deserve great credit. Lyrics and story were not as accomplished. The story introduced so many characters and tried to feature each with a song so that we lacked character development. We missed much of the clockmaker’s backstory which would have given more credibility to his role – we rarely saw him with the other villagers, but maybe that was deliberate to highlight his outsider status. His relationship to his creation was left vague. Did he see her as daughter, wife or servant?
But I must stop being a curmudgeon. Twice I found tears in my eyes, so the fairy-tale magic worked, even on me. There were references to many other stories and the Disney influence was strong. Maybe Disney should pick up the show to bring to a bigger audience.
The remarkable feature for me was the compact, evocative set which was manoeuvred into a variety of scenes. A great piece of work from David Shields.
Jennifer Harding as Constance convinced with a mix of mechanical and humane without cliché, her delight then dismay at being loved then rejected was very touching.
Lawrence Carmichael had a tough role, only having Constance to relate to, but he did well.
Alan McHale was a delight as Will, with a charming voice and totally believable acting.
Is Ma Riley a pantomime dame or villain or both? I felt Jo Wickham needed to make a decision to go more boldly one way or the other.
Alyssa Martin (Amelia) and Alex Spinney (Henry) make the most of being the good guys despite not being given a great deal to do.
Rob McManus was convincing as Mayor Glynn showing his weakness and confusion at the his community reacted to the unknown.
The ensemble worked hard to create and maintain individual characters, though the director should have reined in some annoying eccentricities, mainly in movement.
Robert McWhir kept everything moving effectively, but he could have been more disciplined in presenting a more constant style through the show.
It works well as a new fairy-tale. Maybe it is aimed more to a younger audience which is why we don’t see the darker side to the Clockmaker and his daughter’s relationship. Go see it and judge for yourself – can the magic work on you too?