The RSC’s big Christmas show – the first production to open in its main theatre since March 2020 – is an adaptation of the children’s novel The Magician’s Elephant by the American author Kate DiCamillo. And the first thing to say about this “charming elephant-asy” is that “the star attraction is a delight to behold”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph.
Puppetry director Mervyn Millar and designer Tracy Waller have “created a beauty”, agreed Chris Wiegand in The Guardian. Controlled by three puppeteers, the beast “instantly delighted” the half-term audience at the matinée I attended. The trouble is that the rest of the show doesn’t quite hit the same heights. The “slight” and rather fey story is set post First World War, and concerns the townsfolk of Baltese – a dour place somewhere in Mitteleuropa – whose spirits are lifted when an elephant literally crashes into their lives, the result of a magic trick gone wrong.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The music by Nancy Harris and Marc Teitler contains much wit and spirit, but “few of the melodies stay with you, and the show’s liveliest sequences are dampened by a moralising, oversentimental air”. It’s not a triumph on the same scale as Matilda, agreed Clive Davis in The Times. Still, it’s entertaining and watchable, and “the sheer professionalism of Sarah Tipple’s production carries you along”.
Teitler’s “elegantly orchestrated” music has touches of Kurt Weill and echoes of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. The lyrics, co-written with Harris, are “neat and tidy, although they also have to squeeze in a daunting amount of exposition”. The cast perform with “gusto”, and then there is the elephant itself, which is just “breathtaking”.
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (01789-331111). Until 1 January
-
5 artfully drawn cartoons about Donald Trump's Epstein doodleCartoons Artists take on a mountainous legacy, creepy art, and more
-
Violent videos of Charlie Kirk’s death are renewing debate over online censorshipTalking Points Social media ‘promises unfiltered access, but without guarantees of truth and without protection from harm’
-
What led to Poland invoking NATO’s Article 4 and where could it lead?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION After a Russian drone blitz, Warsaw’s rare move to invoke the important NATO statute has potentially moved Europe closer to continent-wide warfare
-
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – a ‘comfort’ watch for fansThe Week Recommends The final film of the franchise gives viewers a chance to say goodbye
-
The Paper: new show, same 'warmth and goofiness'The Week Recommends This spin-off of the American version of The Office is ‘comfortingly and wearyingly familiar’
-
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons – ‘riotously colourful’ works from an ‘exhilarating’ painterThe Week Recommends The 34-year-old is the first artist to take over Dulwich Picture Gallery’s main space
-
Born With Teeth: ‘mischievously provocative’ play starring Ncuti GatwaThe Week Recommends ‘Sprightly’ production from Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
-
Art review: Lorna Simpson: Source NotesFeature Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Nov. 2
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Book reviews: 'Baldwin: A Love Story' and 'The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces'Feature A loving James Baldwin biography and the drug crimes of two special ops veterans
-
Rigatoni with 'no-vodka sauce' recipeThe Week Recommends Comfort food meets a clever alcohol-free twist on a classic
