A Little Princess Theatre by the Lake Keswick Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Jo Hardy
For me it wouldn’t be Christmas without a trip to the theatre, I always look forward to finding out what the Christmas production will be at Theatre by the Lake.
This is a world premier! Made by Theatre by the Lake with the support of National Theatre’s Generate programme.
A Little Princess is a classic novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett who also wrote The Secret Garden, I was not familiar with the story so had no idea what to expect.
When I entered the auditorium the stage was warmly lit and hung with colourful Indian sari fabrics, the first person on the stage was an Indian story teller and this character made appearances throughout the show, then we were introduced to Sara Crewe the “little princess” and her father “captain Crew” who she clearly adored, born and brought up in India Sara’s mother had died when she was a baby, despite this she’d led a privileged and happy life, then her father decided she needed a proper education and takes her to England to enrol in Miss Minchin’s boarding school. The rest of the show was set in the wood panelled boarding school.
The other pupils in the school were hilarious at playing the boarding school stereotypes they got it just right, the one who stood out the most for me was Natalie Blair who played Ermengarde, she was fantastic and so funny she really got the awkwardness of a young girl who didn’t quite fit in but was trying so hard. I was amazed that the same person could go from being the awkward uncoordinated girl to performing the moves in an Indian dance with such grace and elegance.
Sara’s life at the school soon makes a dramatic change as her father dies and there is no money to pay for the fees, the cold hearted money grabbing Miss Minchin banished poor Sara to the servants quarter to work with the other servant girl Becky, together they try to make the best of everything and dream of better things.
There are parts in this show that are a bit miserable but it is smattered with humour and some more colourful scenes. I don’t know if there is a musical version of this show but I couldn’t help feeling that I wanted some music or some songs to brighten things up a bit, they managed to slip in a decorated Christmas tree but there wasn’t anything else that I found Christmassy.
All the actors are so brilliant it doesn’t seem fair to single any out but my favourite characters were Ermengarde and Becky, and there was some very clever puppetry, this is the first time I’ve ever found a rat endearing.
There is also a youth cast who play some of the pupils at the school and they gave a faultless performance.
The show did leave that feel good feeling and for me the main message was resilience, kindness to others a how important friends are.
A Little Princess is at Theatre by the Lake 17th Nov to 7th Jan, the evening performance starts at 7.15 pm and on selected dates there are morning and afternoon performances, it runs for 2 hours 30 mins with a 20 min interval, suitable for ages 6 and above ticket prices start at £12 and are available from theatrebythelake.com
https://www.theatrebythelake.com/event/a-little-princess/
Rating: 4/5