101 Dalmatians, Tobacco Factory Theatre

Picture: Farrows Creative

Every few months a group of Bristol folk get together and try once again to create theatrical magic. The team – including director Sally Cookson, designer Katie Sykes, and musicians the Bower brothers – were last seen back in February with their atmospheric, hugely commended Jane Eyre: and this Tobacco Factory co-production with Bristol’s brilliant Travelling Light joins that show at the top of their roll of honour.

101 Dalmatians features more of the magic and inventiveness we have come to expect from Cookson and co., with music, movement, acting, stage design and an ingenious assemblage of props all working together to evoke a rich imagined world – and a royal flush of emotions, from fear and panic to giddiness and joy.

Dodie Smith’s beloved tale follows an outsize canine family who must extricate themselves from extreme peril at the hands of a dark-hearted fur obsessive, while their eccentric owners fret forlornly at home. Imagine how much fun could be had with this onstage – then double that fun quotient, and you have something approaching what the team have achieved.

There are inspired casting and staging decisions everywhere. Tristan Sturrock and Lucy Tuck, for example, play both the besotted owners Mr and Mrs Dearly and their equally loved-up hounds Pongo and Perdita: and there’s much fun to be had from these and many other lightning-quick changes of costume and personality (incidentally, both actors also make very fine dogs, their bounding, shouty, rear-sniffing mannerisms perfectly rendered). Elsewhere, Team Cookson regulars Felix Hayes and Saikat Ahamed are both in wonderful form as, respectively, Cruella de Vil’s shifty furrier husband and the Dearly’s doting butler/dogsitter.

As ever with this team, the music (played live by the Bower brothers and fellow Bristol musician Ian Ross) is inextricably linked to the drama, conjuring up a range of atmospheres – eerie and menacing as Cruella’s net descends upon the treasured hounds; frantic and adrenaline-soaked as the latter battle their way through the winter night back to London; skittish and joyous for the longed-for homecoming.

Brilliant visual moments abound: to cite just one, Cruella’s furious motorbike pursuit down snowy Suffolk lanes is rendered with breathtaking simplicity and verve. Mood and tone are nicely controlled too: at the evening’s dark nadir, with the dogs’ incarceration and Carla Mendonça’s captivating Cruella in full evil-cackle mode, comedy bounds back in the shape of the Twilight Barking – a canine bush telegraph that ushers the dogs back to safety. Here, as throughout, dramaturg Adam Peck’s snappy script excels (and boy, is deep-voiced Felix Hayes an excellent Great Dane, as well as a surprisingly sonorous cow).

This team of creatives understands like few others the joys of theatre and storytelling, and how all its elements can mesh together. Imagination, comedy and atmosphere abound: a jaw-droppingly energetic and inventive cast and musical team bring to life an exquisitely conceived set and some inspired visual gags. The end result, for audiences young and old, is magical. 

101 Dalmatians continues at the Tobacco Factory Theatre until Sunday 11 November. For more info and to book tickets, visit http://www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/detail/101_dalmatians/