The Ocean At The End Of The Lane made its world premiere on the National Theatre in 2019. Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman and tailored for the stage by Joel Horwood, the manufacturing was an immediate success receiving three Olivier Awards nominations for Best New Play, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Lighting. The play was then resulting from switch to the Duke of York’s Theatre within the West End in 2020, nonetheless COVID stepped in and the present opened later than deliberate in 2021 operating till mid-2022. Hot on the heels of the West End run, a UK and Ireland Tour was mounted starting in December 2022. Stopping on the New Wimbledon Theatre, London audiences have one other likelihood to marvel at Gaiman’s “fantastic fiction” and step inside this engrossing critically-acclaimed manufacturing as soon as extra.
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane revolves round Boy, as he returns to his childhood dwelling and finds himself standing beside the pond of the previous Sussex farmhouse the place he used to play. He’s transported to his twelfth birthday when his exceptional good friend Lettie claimed it wasn’t a pond, however an ocean – a spot the place every thing is feasible. Plunged right into a magical world, their survival relies on their potential to reckon with historic forces that threaten to destroy every thing round them. This play marks the primary main stage adaptation of a Neil Gaiman work and blends magic with reminiscence in a tour-de-force of storytelling that takes audiences on an epic journey to a childhood as soon as forgotten and the darkness that lurks on the very fringe of it.
Under the masterful route of Katy Rudd, the touring manufacturing options Keir Ogilvy (Restless Natives, No Future) as Boy, Finty Williams (Twelfth Night, The Key Workers Cycle, The Chalk Garden) as Old Mrs Hempstock, Trevor Fox (Macbeth, Billy Elliot, The Curious Incident of the Dog within the Night-Time) as Dad, Charlie Brooks (All in a Row, Beautiful Thing, EastEnders) as Ursula, Millie Hikasa (Jack Absolute Flies Again, Another F***ing Play About Race, Macbeth) as Lettie Hempstock, Kemi-Bo Jacobs (The Winter’s, All My Sons, Wild East) as Ginnie Hempstock, Laurie Ogden (To Kill a Mockingbird, Victoria’s Knickers, Consensual) as Sis. They’re supported by an incredible ensemble together with Ronnie Lee (The Laramie Project, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Paolo Guidi (Touch), Domonic Ramsden (War Horse, Aladdin, Snow White), Aimee McGoldrick (A Walk is Not Just a Walk, No Tits & Plenty of Troubles) with understudies Emma-Jane Goodwin (The Curious Incident of the Dog within the Night-time), Lewis Howard (War Horse, Cider With Rosie), Jasmeen James (Jekyll and Hyde, A Christmas Carol), Joe Rawlinson-Hunt (The Curious Incident of the Dog within the Night-Time), Risha Silvera (Black Women Dating White Men, Jack Frost).
As Boy, Keir Ogilvy delivers a panoramic efficiency. Barely leaving the stage all through the play, Ogilvy skillfully manages Boy’s fragility whereas balancing his spritely innocence and surprise. As the villainess Ursula, Charlie Brooks appears like she’s having lots of enjoyable. With assistance from some very intelligent staging and particular results, Brook’s Ursula transforms in entrance of the viewers from ill-mannered lodger to the scariest flea you’ve ever seen. Trevor Fox as Dad expertly portrays a heart-broken man grappling with the lack of his spouse and his personal mood, whereas Laurie Ogden as Sis channels her inside youthful sibling to provide Boy a run for his cash. Millie Hikasa, Finty Williams and Kemi-Bo Jacobs deliver the Hempstock clan to life with professional physicality and quirky traits. With a vigorous onstage presence, Millie Hikasa is very memorable as Boy’s finest good friend (and proprietor of the Ocean) Lettie Hempstock. She excellently marries Lottie’s sophisticated soul with the surprise and innocence of a kid to superbly painting the youngest Hempstock. The ensemble work collectively remodeling into magical imps. Often shifting furnishings across the stage, changing into magical objects and the terrifying Hunger Birds, the ensemble do wonders in bringing the world(s) of the play to life.
Like Neil Gaiman’s different works (Stardust, Coraline, Sandman and American Gods), The Ocean At The End Of The Lane requires an all-encompassing design to attract the viewers into his fantastical worlds. Luckily, the artistic staff have labored miracles in making Ocean come alive on stage. Fly Davis’s set design is easy, however extraordinarily efficient which permits Jamie Harrison’s magic and Illusions to shine. Ian Dickinson’s booming sound design and Jherek Bischoff’s compositions mix to create a moody, thumping rating that matches completely. Finn Caldwell’s puppetry is ingenious and menacing as he creates beings from one other world out of rotting cloth and black umbrellas, whereas Paule Constable’s lighting design illuminates simply sufficient with specials and spotlights to maintain the magic alive.
The Ocean At The End of The Lane is an ethereal expertise. Joel Horwood superbly captures Neil Gaiman’s masterpiece and transports it to the stage in a superbly woven, visually beautiful piece of theatre with an emotional and fantastical story. Playing a restricted run on the New Wimbledon Theatre till April fifteenth, The Ocean At The End of The Lane isn’t one to overlook!
Reviewed by Stuart James