shake & stir Theatre Company return to the stage with their delightful adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's classic 'George's Marvellous Medicine'.
After a sold-out run at QPAC in 2016 followed by runs in New Zealand and Sydney, shake & stir have brought the show back to Brisbane.“It doesn’t feel like work though because it's such a passion play,” Director Ross Balbuziente says.
“This book was one of my favourite growing up as a kid and I'm still a big kid at heart so creating it has been an utter joy. The cast and entire creative team went on this journey with me to create a living, breathing animation on stage in all its heightened, bubbling glory.”
A delightful romp for the young and young-at-heart alike, in 'George's Marvellous Medicine' what starts as just another boring day for George quickly turns into an experiment of gigantic proportions.
George can’t stand his Grandma. Wanting to teach her a lesson and put an end to her constant nagging, George concocts a special medicine, greater than any medicine in the history of medicines. The only problem is, the medicine really does work.
“In the story there is so much beautiful content to play with,” Ross says.
“The whole notion of how George creates the medicine by going into every room in the house to throw in absolutely everything he finds into this mixture, that is the largest part of the adaptation and we don’t shy away from that.
“Audiences will see our George throw, toss, slurp, dollop, shake and stir every bit of that marvellous medicine into that pot and we reveal that throughout the process.”
That's where the fun starts and it only 'grows' from there, with plenty of laughs and shenanigans along the way to keep kids of all ages giggling well after the final curtain closes.
Though Ross feels esteemed to take on the work of Roald Dahl, he says the greater reward comes with introducing another generation of theatre-goers to the infinite worlds of imagination that lie just beyond them.
“It's one of those privileges that we do not take lightly,” he says.
“We understand that some of our audiences are seeing theatre for the very first time and one of the best things about my job is that I can see the five, six, and seven-year-olds in the audience who potentially have never been to the theatre before experiencing this show with their parents, teachers, friends and grandparents even – despite the content of what's going on on stage with George blowing up his grandma. It's just a really lovely cross-section of the audience. Also, [for] the children of the '80s, I'm one of them, that grew up reading the book when it was released and it's now a nice trip down memory lane.”
shake & stir is a theatre company well-known for faithful and uncompromising adaptations of classic stories. Whether it's Orwell ('1984' and 'Animal Farm'), Stoker ('Dracula') or Dahl, Ross says the approach is the same.
“They're given the same amount of care, concern, creative input and energy and talent as our adult, dare I say, adaptations,” he says.
“It is a challenge but we absolutely love the originals of the books so much that there is a lot of care and concern given when creating the shows.”
