A colourful, funny production, with cringe worthy characters and a talented ensemble cast, The Twits is one to take the kids to. I take my partner, and settling in to our seats are surrounded by 5 year olds and their parents, I’m not sure how the evening will fare, but I have been looking forward to seeing it and I’m not disappointed.
The fear of a night too full of audience interaction is, thankfully, unfounded; in fact there is just enough in this energetic production to keep the target audience on their toes without making any of the older audience members want to crawl under their seats. Apart from, perhaps, the men picked out to be greeted loudly by us all ‘Hello Mr beardy-man!’
There’s no denying there’s a pants feel; at one point we’re actively encouraged to shout ‘Behind you!’, but that format works for theatre aimed at keeping 8 year olds entertained, while containing just enough innuendo and energy for the adults.
The Twits themselves are suitably disgusting. I’m sure anyone of my generation can remember reading the Roald Dahl book many times, and the characters are brought to life with costumes so convincingly filthy and a run-down ‘caravan’ of a home, that we are transported into this familiar world. Occasionally I am relieved when the scenes of the couple playing revolting tricks on each other make way for the rest of the cast to play us a song and sing us through to the next part of the story, although I get the impression that the kids in the audience would be quite happy to watch an entire evening of toilet humour and the old ‘worms as spaghetti’ trick.
The addition of live instruments on stage, played by the rest of the cast is an excellent one, keeping the energy high and bringing another dimension to the production. The lighting suitably takes us from scene to scene effectively, creating some atmosphere in a venue which can sometimes leave the audience feeling removed from the action. The story is a classic one of these terrible people getting their comeuppance in the end, and we do have a lot of fun watching them get there. 3/5
Review written by Laura Chatburn.
The Twits is currently at the Brighton Theatre Royal until Saturday 4th February. For more information on the production, visit here…
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