How do you bring giants to life? At Imagination Stage, the answer is puppetry.
This summer, Imagination Stage is bringing Giant Country to Bethesda with a big, beautiful production of The BFG. Based on the book by Roald Dahl and adapted by David Wood, the show is an elegant and larger than life tale featuring towering puppets both friendly and not.
The BFG is the world’s only friendly giant. He operates in the strictest of secrecy to bring good dreams to the human world, while his nasty counterparts steal and have the despicable habit of eating children. Upon meeting little orphan Sophie through her window, he whisks her away to his home in Giant Country. Together they embark on an adventure to Buckingham Palace to get help from the Queen and save the children from the other giants!
Before the show began, Kathryn Chase Bryer, co-director of The BFG and Imagination Stage's Associate Artistic Director, told the audience that The BFG is usually performed with a person playing the role of The BFG and a puppet playing Sophie. Eric J. Van Wyk, co-director of The BFG, proposed staging the show with a giant puppet and an actress in the role of Sophie and workshopped the show with his students at Viterbo University.
The result? Enormous puppets that really bring the story's giants to life - perhaps a bit too much so for the littlest theatergoers. While the BFG is gentle and kind, his fellow giants are menacing flesh eaters. My five year old daughter came to the show with me, and she watched most of the scenes with the giants with a blanket pulled up to just under her eyes.
For every scary scene with talks of which country boasts the most delicious humans, though, there are sweet and funny scenes with Sophie and the BFG. Some of the funniest scenes involve the BFG's love of whizzpopping after drinking his beloved downward fizzing frobscottle. Sophie is horrified at first, explaining that passing gas in the human world is considered impolite, but eventually she joins her new friend with whizzpops that lift both of them off the ground. My daughter roared with laughter during these scenes, as did the rest of the kids in the audience (and let's be honest: the adults too).
Imagination Stage recommends this show for kids ages 5-10. I would argue that five might be a bit too young for this show, as the scenes with the less friendly giants are a bit intense. The giant puppets are beautiful but huge, and even the BFG may be a bit too big and scary for more sensitive kids.
The BFG runs through August 10. Tickets start at $10, and may be purchased online, at the Imagination Stage box office, or via phone at 301-280-1660. Group rates are available.
Special opportunities:
• ASL interpreted performance: July 13 at 4:00 p.m.
• Sensory-Friendly performance: July 27 at 11:00 a.m.
• A limited number of $10 tickets are available for each performance by calling the Box Office, courtesy of the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation. These tickets go on sale for the following week’s performances on Monday mornings at 10:00 a.m.
Disclosure: I received complimentary tickets in exchange for my honest review.
