Swallows and Amazons @ Darlington Civic

A wonderful exercise in imagineering which every child should be encouraged to try.

There have been some amazing developments in cinematography recently - high definition, IMAX, 3D - not to mention the fantastical CGI demonstrated in films such as Transformers, Avatar and Inception, but sometimes I wonder whether all this "alternative reality on a plate" is stripping away our ability to fantasise and make believe.

Well, having just watched Tom Morris's Swallows and Amazons at the Civic in Darlington I have to acknowledge that, without a single electric prop, with no high definition back scenes and based only on the ingenuity of a cast of actors and musicians, I lost myself in Windermere 1928.

The story is well known; 2 groups of children take to the lake to sail, explore, rival and ultimately join together in their own fantasies of pirates, savages, ghosts and treasure.  What really set this production aside is the completely refreshing way that the set  and props gave the feeling that they too were derived from the childrens' imaginations.  Boats were not much more than skateboards with blue ribbons for the water, birds were cleverly fashioned from shears and bin bags while the view through a telescope was brilliantly mimicked with hoops and mini models but it only took a moment to trigger the now underused 'minds eye' and the stage disappeared and the Lake District took it's place.

Just as clever was the introduction of sound effects, again being done acoustically - the sound of the wind was generated by a traditional 'wheel and canvas', thunder was created by the biggest storm board I've seen and a crackling camp fire was amazingly done simply by clicking and clapping hands.

The cast, all quite grown up despite playing characters aging from 12 down to 'almost 8' worked really hard to make their parts believable children without being childish - the original story had all the kids display a great degree of strength of character which came from having the confidence to explore the countryside without fear or prejudice - quite different from the children of today.   Granted, there are few who would be happy to let 4 children sail out across a lake to a deserted island to camp, but lets not forget that this story is set very much in a time where the challenges of life were to be faced, and overcome, from the earliest of years.

Led by Richard Holt as Cptn John Walker (who perfectly carried the angst and responsibility of the 'man of the house' while his father was at sea and took his assumed place as the head of the camp with great importance) and with Katie Moore as Susan Walker (playing the 'surrogate mother' with a wonderful blend of practicality and tenderness), the 'children' keep the story rattling along whilst the stage support and crew constantly demonstrate the unique improvisation for sound and visuals.   Adding to this, Akiya Henry and Stuart Wright (as Titty and Roger) who brought humour and comedy, again childlike, not childish. 

Two scenes stand out above all others - the midnight dream sequence which is reminiscent of a Faustian fantasy coupled with Pirates of the Caribbean, and the fun-packed audience participation of the final battle.  I guess that, in the grand scheme of things, this story has yet to be made into a Hollywood gloss movie, nor has it been subject to a BBC drama department make over so this production can keep true, and capture so much of the appeal and essence of the original - the fantasy of childrens' imaginations. 

If you have children of your own, or if you're an uncle or an aunt, then do yourselves a favour and take them to see this - they will probably be pleased for the invite, you will certainly be glad you did.

Swallows and Amazons is at the Darlington Civic until Saturday 10th March