Royal & Derngate, Northampton
Mildred Hubble’s misadventures are told with wit and ingenuity in a touring production based on Jill Murphy’s books
Jill Murphy was 15 when she invented Mildred Hubble, the clumsy girl who is deemed the “worst witch” after she arrives by accident at Miss Cackle’s Academy. Murphy’s books about Mildred have now sold more than 5m copies. One of the many joys about this new stage version for the over-sevens, created by Emma Reeves who also does the brilliant CBBC adaptation, is the way it empowers its young audience by sparking their imagination. You could do all this yourself, it seems to continually suggest. The spells, the slo-mo action sequences, the song-and-dance routines, even the handmade glove-puppet cats, beg to be recreated at home.
That’s partly because the show is framed as a school play written by Mildred and put on by the students and teachers at the academy (rated “fantastical” by Ofmag in such core subjects as charms and chanting, we’re told). It’s a clever concept because most of the audience will have firsthand experience of being involved in plays themselves, especially over the festive season.
Continue reading...from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2StjZax
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