Theatre / Reviews
Review: The Time Machine, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘The house was filled with laughter, giggles, love and applause’
“Mad, silly, loads of fun and completely watchable – not at all what I expected and the best thing I’ve seen in ages!” The words of the resident 12-year old – and it looked like the rest of the theatre were completely in agreement.
It’d be unfair to just stop there, but to be honest, he nailed it. This very loose adaptation of HG Wells’ novel The Time Machine is playing at Theatre Royal Bath this week. It is more Edinburgh Fringe than Victorian sitting room drama, so if you want something more “true to the book”, be warned.
There were some disappointed voices in the audience from those who expected something traditional. But this is a show full of energy, silliness, fun, generosity, and kindness.
is needed now More than ever
Michael Dylan and Dave Hearn in The Time Machine
It takes Wells’s big questions about the ever-human desire to do what can’t be done and plops them right in our own laps, removing the ‘get-out clause’ of chronological distance that we get from historical adaptations (‘it’s about them over there; not me, over here’). Wells would be proud.
The trio on stage – Michael Dylan, Dave Hearn and Amy Revelle – play a touring drama company who’ve been waylaid into staging this very same Wells adaptation you’re watching right now by the discovery of Wells’ original manuscript in his attic – and his Time Machine…with proof that it actually worked.
Dave Hearn and Amy Revelle
We join them on their adventure, with peril, threat to life, Muppets, Cher and a smattering of ‘Stenders and royalty.
Special mentions to Amy Revelle for her Megan, Dave Hearn for his consistent energy, and Michael Dylan for a genuinely moving Hamlet moment (I’m taking their rain-soundscape technique with me for keeps – it’s genius).
Dave Hearn and Michael Dylan
Director Orla O’Loughlin has – especially in the first half – created a very pacy show, with high energy and great wit. With writers Steven Canny and John Nicholson and an excellent cast and crew, she’s created something that deserves comparison with The Play What I Wrote and the Play That Goes Wrong series.
On this rainy April night, full of damp and the Monday-night-of-the-soul-ness, this was a reminder of the importance of silliness amid all the seriousness that’s called life. The TRB main house was filled with laughter, giggles, love and applause.
The Time Machine is at Theatre Royal Bath on April 24-29 at 7.30pm, with additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are available at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.
All photos: Manuel Harlan
Read more: Review: Farm Hall, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘Nuanced and rigorously detailed’
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