Marianne is ten years old, and sick with a fever. Bed-ridden and constantly attended to by Mother and a crisply efficient doctor, she relieves the tedium by drawing pictures. At night, dreaming, Marianne finds herself outside the house that she has sketched earlier. There is a boy in it. But who is he? And why can he not come down from his first-floor window to see her?
These, in outline, are the bare bones of the story playwright Moira Buffini has filleted from Marianne Dreams, Catherine Storr’s 1958 fantasy novel for children. The problem for any company staging the piece is simple: how do you bring the fantasy elements alive in performance, making them convincing for the current generation of scarily techno-savvy 10-13 year-olds, Buffini’s target audience?
Replay Theatre Company’s answer is equally straightforward: if you can’t beat them at the IT lark, join them. Clever, computer-generated graphics transform the drably grey-washed walls of Marianne’s bedroom as she creates, for instance, a staircase for the mystery boy, freeing him from captivity. When he’s hungry, she sketches food for him; when he’s tired, a bed to lie on. Patrick Sanders’ deftly economical sketches work excellently for a young audience, clearly communicative yet at the same time recognisably something a 10-year-old might be capable of producing.
The wrought-iron bedstead stage-centre is another focus of visual attention. It springs a few surprises, sliding into an upright position (“oohs” from the packed stalls seating) when Marianne commences dreaming, and transmogrifying into a couple of pull-out bicycles (“aahs” and laughter) for Marianne and Mark (the boy) later. At one point Mark emerges startlingly from underneath it, causing the present writer to jolt alarmingly (and he’s supposed to be an adult).
Belfast actress Susan Davey, as Marianne, holds the stage for virtually the entire 70 minutes. She’s 22 in reality, but looks younger, and acts down very effectively, carefully avoiding inappropriately mature gestures or expressions. It’s a beautifully paced performance, no emotional climax tugged at too greedily, no saggy lacunae in more trivial, workaday transactions. Her diction is also immaculate. Dermott Hickson’s part is smaller, but his Mark is equally impressive, catching the pent-up frustrations of a polio sufferer without resort to ranting. The smaller parts of mother Helen (Mary Moulds), tutor Miss Chesterfield (Rosie McClelland), and Dr Burton (Paul Lewis-Ferguson) are capably taken.
This production is virtually flawless. It feeds generously that youthful sense of mystery and fantasy we so easily lose as adults, and does so in a visual language which an immaculately attentive audience of 250 local schoolchildren clearly found engrossing. Serious questions (about the nature of reality, and the effects of disabling illness) are broached thoughtfully, but never laboured. That makes Marianne something of a dream ticket for English and Drama teachers keen to give this particular age-group a meaningful experience of live theatre and what it can do for those who watch it.
Terry Blain is an arts journalist and cultural commentator, contributing regularly to BBC Music Magazine, Opera Britannia, Culture Northern Ireland and other publications.