If you had to pick a single image to encapsulate the scope of Roald Dahl’s imagination, it might be that of an enormous peach inhabited by giant insects plunging from the sky and becoming impaled on the Empire State Building. Oddly, this is the one detail that David Wood – generally the most faithful of Dahl adaptors – chooses to omit; though his version first appeared in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and therefore not the most auspicious time for a children’s show depicting scenes of panic on the streets of New York.
Mark Calvert’s revival maintains the tactful approach to James’s touchdown in America; though there’s no question that a soft landing in Central Park robs the story of its natural climax. But the production compensates by generating so much New York City sass you can practically smell the steam rising from the sidewalk. A great deal of this is down to the infectious swing generated by Jeremy Bradfield’s score, performed by a seriously hot ensemble of insect-musicians within a glitzy setting by Rhys Jarman that evokes the art deco splendour of Radio City Music Hall. Indeed, the peach is so huge it bursts through to the adjacent theatre, as Northern Stage has conjoined its two auditoriums to accommodate it.
Calvert’s production doesn’t entirely sidestep the morbid aspects of Dahl’s imagination – the remarkably dark episode in which James’s parents are mown down in the high street by an escaped rhinoceros is sinisterly evoked by a cluster of shoppers’ umbrellas. But for all its charm, the show invariably loses some momentum in the attempt to avert Peach-mageddon.
• At Northern Stage, Newcastle, until 31 December. Box office: 0191-230 5151.
