Responsible types might feel that the scamp who spiked his Granny’s medicine with toilet cleaner and flea powder deserves an ASBO, not a show taking his message out to coach loads of impressionable tots. But this is the inimitably revolting world of Roald Dahl. And Birmingham Stage Company’s adaptation of ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ is cacophonously good fun.
The mayhem is crammed into Jacqueline Trousdale’s adult doll’s house of a set. George’s farmer parents race on and off, frequently propelling chickens on wheels. And when Clark Devlin’s George hisses ‘Grandma better start to pray…fizzle swizzle, shout “Hooray!”’, into his radio mic, most of the primary school audience join in with gusto.
Bombarding kids with that classic CBeebies formula of noise, jokes and interaction doesn’t always help them pay attention to the story, and the audience tends to wriggle, natter and scratch itself during the dialogue-driven bits. For parents, the oft-repeated eight-bar jingle and the sheer shriek-tastic quarrelsome pitch of every human interaction will rub the sensitive or indeed hungover soul like a cheese grater. There’s plenty of well-staged humour though: when Erika Poole’s fantastically grumpy Grandma suddenly grows ten feet taller or when chickens and pigs, also enlarged by George’s magic mixture, invade the stage, it’s a riot.
Dahl’s story requires that George’s medicine is made more than once and adapter David Wood has the smart idea of making the second go into a memory game, which instantly enlivens it. An exceptionally pungent and effective piece of kids theatre - just don't try it at home.