MAGIC can happen when the stars align, the gods unite and the time is right. That fickle chance beamed down on King Street in Bristol at the moment when writer Max Porter, director Nancy Medina, adaptor Bea Roberts and designer Rebecca Jane Wood agreed to adapt Porter’s 2019 book for the stage.

The result is Lanny, which fills the historic Old Vic theatre with its enchantment until 7th October, and will surely have a much longer life on stage.

The book, variously described as experimental, a grief memoir, a long poem and a novella, is set in a remote village outside Bristol, a place full of history and ghosts. City worker Robert and his writer wife Jolie have just moved in to one of the oldest cottages with their very bright son Lanny. They have befriended their ancient neighbour Peggy and reclusive artist Pete. Lanny, who loves nature, gets interested in the local legend of Dead Papa Toothwort, not knowing that Peggy is the keeper of the mystery.

Then Lanny goes missing, and we are catapulted from the world of green men and The Morris into the days of podcasts and police investigations, on-line rumours, vigils and vigilantes and community-together sing-songs. Raw terror drives Jolie (Hanora Kamen) and Robert (Raj Bajaj) apart as they deflect accusations in helpless hope.

The Old Vic stage is brilliantly transformed. Wisps of words appear and disappear on the walls of the houses. The ghosts of past residents lurk, but do they lurk with love or with menace? Jolie KNOWS that Lanny is coming home, but who can belive her faith?
This is a very English story, timeless but sharply modern. Dom Coyote’s original music captures the traditional spirit.

Atlas Johnson-Dutfield (who shares the role with Lucian Thomas) is the delightful Lanny, eager, curious, impetuous and loveable. You can just imagine the impact he would have on a village community.

Richard Cant’s Pete maintains a dignified solitude, aware of the inevitable fears of his more conventional neighbours. Amanda Lawrence, in multiple and widely varied roles, gives Peggy a timeless wisdom, bridging the gap between mystery and reality.

See Lanny if you can – this is a theatrical production touched with alchemy.

GP-W

 

 Photographs by Helen Murray