Check out the internet theory that Greta Thunberg is an environmental time traveller hopping through the eras to sort out the planet. If true – and why wouldn’t it be? – it would be safe to say the eco-warrior also turned up in 1930s Kansas. The manmade catastrophe of the dust bowl is just the kind of thing she rails against. And you can be sure the grownups didn’t listen then, either.
With her pigtails and stoic expression, there’s something of the Thunberg about Agatha Meehan, alternating with Lucy Sherman in the role of Dorothy in James Brining’s thrilling staging of The Wizard of Oz. In a tremendous performance that belies her age, the teenager is a ferocious seeker of justice, certain in her moral beliefs, frustrated at being ignored and outraged at Toto’s treatment by Miss Gulch (Polly Lister giving an evil cackle even before she reappears as the Wicked Witch). Just like Thunberg, she refuses to accept adult inaction, even when Graham Hoadly’s dissembling Wizard tells her he is “deaf to all appeals”.
Without a hint of stage-school affectation, Meehan sings with truth and directness, her moves tightly choreographed by Lucy Cullingford, her focus never less than intense. The young matinee audience can only watch with awe and admiration – not to mention shrieks when Lister’s loose-limbed witch and her flying monkeys look set to raid the auditorium as they seek to relieve poor Dorothy of her ruby slippers.
Brining’s production is all the more effective for its visual flair. It begins in sandy sepia on Simon Higlett’s wide-open set, with colour drained and dimensions squashed. Simon Wainwright’s video projections and Tim Mitchell’s lighting come into their own with a tornado that’s all swirling scratches and flying debris, complete with spinning aerialists. The payoff is a magically amorphous yellow brick road, an Emerald City that is emerald in every respect and a blue gingham dress for Dorothy.
Aiding her on her journey, Sam Harrison and Eleanor Sutton give endearing turns as the Tin Man and Scarecrow, with Marcus Ayton making a particularly impressive Lion, ranging across several octaves regardless of his timidity.
At Leeds Playhouse, until 25 January.
