Nottingham Theatre Royal
Kevin Poeung impresses as the Arthurian sorcerer in an energetic but unsubtle telling for family audiences of his younger years
Drew McOnie’s first full-length ballet, Merlin, is a likable stab at a fantasy drama for a family audience, based on the story of the legendary wizard, with warring kingdoms, spear-fighting, stage magic, a smoke-breathing dragon and a mighty, LED-studded Excalibur.
The drivers of the plot are quests for power and romantic love – the big stuff – but Merlin’s story is more about family. Born of an encounter between a couple of frisky gods and adopted by a blacksmith single mum, he has a perfect fantasy of who his parents might be, but a more realistic relationship with his mum: of day-to-day exasperations and everyone doing their best but not quite making the other person happy (she wants him to deny his magic and join the army like everyone else) That journey is the real heart of the show.
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