The Ocean At The End Of The Lane
Theatre at Duke Of York, London Until May 14, 2hrs 20mins
Rating: 
Blue/Orange
Theatre Royal Bath Until December 4, 2hrs 15mins
Rating: 
It was a gift.The Ocean at the End Of The Lane It was rated five stars at the National Theatre, in 2019, when it received five. Now it’s in the West End, five stars seems stingy. Neil Gaiman’s haunting novel, adapted by Joel Harwood, looks even better in its new home.
It’s an evening of startling illusions and puppetry – expect a giant arachnid and some hellacious vultures! – all in the service of a story scary enough to be recommended for the over-12s. Two times, I was able to jump out of my skin.
It starts with a middle-aged man (Nicolas Tennant) attending his father’s funeral. We are rewinded back in time to the boy’s 12th birthday. The boy’s (James Bamford) mum is dead, his kid sister is a pest, and Dad can’t even make toast.
The boy (James Bamford) is introduced by local farm girl Lettie Hempstock (Nia Towle, above with Bamford) to the duck pond, actually an ocean portal into another world
A cheerful lodger, Laura Rogers (Laura Rogers), enters their home and is able to control mind control and malice. She has been ‘let in’ when the boy is introduced by local farm girl Lettie Hempstock (Nia Towle) to the duck pond, actually an ocean portal into another world.
Katy Rudd directs the show. It is beautiful, hallucinogenic and creepy all in one. However, the themes of child memory and submerged grief make it fully human.
There’s nothing around to beat this thrillingly imaginative show, which leaves you feeling wrung out.
Blue/Orange Joe Penhall was 21 years of age. It gets a new lease of life in James Dacre’s cracking new production featuring Hamilton star Giles Terera as a pompous psychiatrist who brutally battles his junior shrink (Ralph Davis) over the release of a black patient, Christopher.
The ace up the show’s sleeve is Michael Balogun’s devastatingly sympathetic portrayal of a guy who thinks he may just be the son of the dictator Idi Amin.
This powerful drama on racial/cultural biases within a poor health system is still very much in the right place.