26 May – 13 September
One of the joys of The Watermill Theatre is that they don’t do things by halves. In staging this slice of magical realism from the pen of Ian Fleming the doors are literally thrown open and the audience invited into a big top set up in the garden where the cast (most of whom also constitute the band) have relocated for a slick and energetic performance of Me Ol’ Bamboo. It also gives the audience a chance to rub shoulders with the cast who banter along in character.
Back in the auditorium – which one could say was designed with this production in mind – Paul Hart directs with such vigour one could suppose the actual watermill was spinning set to launch the whole building on a trip to Vulgaria. This fictitious place, the invention of Roald Dahl who co-wrote the screenplay, is where children are banned (and metaphorically, childlike imagination is crushed) and hunted down by the Childcatcher (Susannah Van Den Berg) on command of the infantilized Baron and Baroness (Samuel Morgan-Grahame/Mairi Ikegami). Mistaking Grandpa Potts (Mark Curry) for his inventor son the Baron has him kidnapped and held prisoner under threat of some unspeakable end lest he makes a wonderful floating machine.
To the rescue comes the eponymous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, by now a flying car. A piece of technological up-cycling in which the seemingly impossible is possible and a machine takes on its own personality that goes some way to fill the emotional gap left by the death of a wife and mother. The machine is a kind of Pandar to the emotionally diffident Potts (Christian Edwards) and the ever so eligible, Truly Scrumptious (Lydia Louise).
The Watermill very cleverly grow their own child actors in their youth theatre and the exercise pays off handsomely with a young cast for the play’s children that positively oozes glee. Jeremy and Jemima are adorable and everything a prospective stepmum could want.
The car, which is one half of a full-sized machine is a credit to the prop makers and the director who lets us fill in any technical gaps with our imaginations and a little encouragement. The dance numbers have a lavish feel that belies the constraints to the Watermill stage, lacking nothing in vigour and expression. The set design seems to have grown out of the building itself and the lighting helps bring the Edwardian colour of the costumes to life.
The production uses the original songs by the Sherman brothers with voices and accompaniment in the very best stage tradition. The stage bursts with joy in a production that has everything one might want from family entertainment.
★★★★★ Graham Wyles 8 July 2026
