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Signed/Audio Described performances: Thursday 3 August, 7.30pm & Saturday 5 August, 2.30pm
Mr and Mrs Twit are sloppy and smelly. They don't wash and they don't clean, but they do play nasty tricks on each other - Mr Twit puts frogs in his wife's bed, while Mrs Twit cooks spaghetti worms for her husband's dinner. Worse than that, the disgusting duo have captured a family of Muggle-Wump Monkeys, and keep the poor animals hanging upside down in a cage. But help is at hand when the magic Roly-Poly Bird hatches a hair-raising plan to save them...in a daring escapade that threatens to turn the world of Mr and Mrs Twit upside down!
The Twits is one of Roald Dahl's most popular stories and featured in the BBC Big Read Top 100, a poll of the UK's all-time favourite books. This adaptation by David Wood is a raucous and wonderfully wild tale of mayhem and mercy told through slapstick, live music, dance and drama and is a magical treat for all the family.
After show talkabout...The Twits every Monday evening and Wednesday matinee performances.
Time(s) of Production: 7.30pm; Matinees: (Wed 19th, Sat 22nd, Wed 26th, Sat 29th July; Wed 2nd & Sat 5th August) 2.30pm
Location of Production: AB Paterson Auditorium
Signed/Audio Described performances: Thursday 3 August, 7.30pm & Saturday 5 August, 2.30pm
Production Biogs
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| St Andrews Citizen, Mike Rankin | Don´t be a twit and miss this show! COOL! No, not the refreshments served during the interval (although they were pleasantly chilled) but the young person´s take on the Byre´s summer show, Roald Dahl´s "The Twits". Adapted for the stage by David Wood, the colourful St Andrews production opened last Friday to a resounding cheer from adults and children alike as they relished the antics of two of the most unsavoury characters to have appeared on the Byre Theatre stage for some time. Dahl´s book has been a children´s favourite for many years - Mr and Mrs Twit are a distasteful duo whose sole pleasure in life is being horrible to each other - and Jimmy Johnston and Angela Darcy acquit themselves well in the title roles. As the first half warmed up we heard younger audience members ad libbing, and this became almost a torrent after the break - nicely parried by the terrible twosome as they played to the house! Contributing a lively and enthusiastic performance were the Muggle-Wumps - mum and dad alias Fiona Steele and Philip Scutt and their two youngsters drawn from the youth cast of George Cronin, Freya Dow, Lily Hua, Morven Paterson, Rebekka Pope, Meghan Small, Reece Steel and Isla Winchester. Children (and adults) enjoy a bit of slapstick and we get it in spades as the Muggle-Wumps attempted to free themselves from the clutches of the Twits, assisted by the sonsie Roly-Poly Bird in the shape of Claire Dargo. Needless to say, and much to everyone´s delight, the Twits got their comeuppance in the end. Sharing the stage with the performers was narrator Gary Lake, who showed some nifty footwork as he leapt around the excellent set created by Karen Tennent and her team. The Twits are great fun and well worth seeing. | 21/07/2006 |
| Perthshire Advertiser, Nicole Cargill | Three weeks into the summer holidays. Running out of ideas to amuse the kids? The answer is here - go on a trip to St Andrews and take them to The Byre Theatre. This is a family show that entertains with the hugest capital E you could find anywhere around the planet - or even in this area. Roald Dahl´s creations come to life in St Andrews via the pen of David Wood and a few liberties from co-directors Rita Henderson and Stephen Wrentmore. And the six in the cast plus two children will have never worked so hard in this non-stop mayhem. Mr and Mrs Twit are, to put it kindly, disgusting. They hate everything, particularly each other. They never wash or do their hair - and snack time is usually courtesy of Mr Twit´s beard! They constantly try to out-do each other - Mrs T puts her glass eye in his beer and makes spaghetti out of worms. He puts a slimy frog in her bed. They hit on a cunning plan - to go to Africa and capture some monkeys (Muggle-Wumps) to train to do tricks. But they bargained without the magical Roly Poly Bird who comes to the rescue (with a bit of help from the audience). Angela Darcy and JJimmy Johnston were quite disgustingly superb as the Twits, with Philip Scutt and Fiona Steele hugely energetic as the Mugggle-Wumps. Local children alternate as the two little Muggle-Wumps. Claire Dargo´s magical Roly-Poly Bird was, well magical! And Gary Lake positively exuded enthusiasm as the narrator. Local references and pop tunes of the day make it recognisable for the youngsters, who probably know the story better than the parents in any case! And let´s not forget the lighting and sound contribution which was (and has to be) spot on, courtesy of Simon Wilkinson and musical director/composer Alan Penman. Rita Henderson´s choreographic background - with a bit of help from Jemma King - was evident in the catchy dance routines. Karen Tennent´s clever setting allowed for a bit of upside-down nonsense - or was it us who were upside-down? This is the slickest, most innovative piece of sheer family fun as you could wish to see - and, indeed, take part! | 21/07/2006 |
| Edinburghguide.com, Ellen Woodrow | Fun-filled, brightly coloured fanfare. This fun-filled, brightly coloured fanfare of a performance is a joyous way to spend an evening. We are greeted by the wonderful set, as topsy-turvy as the home of The Twits should be. During the show, this proves to be incredibly versatile - we're taken on a trip to the Mugglewumps' deepest darkest Africa and back to the Twits' backyard without so much as a moment's hesitation. The eccentric narrator, Garry Lake, enjoys anything but the traditional narrator's role. He sets the tone for the evening perfectly, and introduces our cast with flourish. It's an engaging format, especially for a children's show - all the characters cemented in the mind right from the start, before the story got too underway. The energy of this production just never drops, and the movement of all the performers is brilliant. From the Mugglewumps' dance routines, to the Twits' comedy fist fights and Roly-Poly Bird's wonderful scooting about and booty-shaking, the timing with movement, music and lighting is spot on throughout. I loved Jimmy Johnston as Mr Twit, and his wee asides to the audience - telling us to stop laughing and the like. It's really nice, too, that the actors remain in character perfectly all the way through, even to the curtain call, which was none of your standard take-a-bow affair, but further ntertainment in its own right. This is definitely a children's show, make no mistake, but what a children's show it is. One unquestioningly enjoyed by my adult companion and me. There's the prerequisite call and answer, booing and hissing, and even a rap to learn, but it's all the best possible in good kids' entertainment. The introduction of a select few favourite pop tunes only adds to the good times - bringing a much loved story from many of our own childhoods right slap bang into the twenty-first century. And boy, do the kids love them! Most of all, this production looks fun, fun, fun! The set looks fun to design, the costumes to be the result of a costume department enjoying a free reign (love those sequinned baseball boots, Roly-Poly Bird!). While the dances look fun to do (if a little hot under all those lights!) and the cast just seem to enjoy performing the piece. The good feeling exuded is taken on whole-heartedly by the audience; a thoroughly enjoyable evening. One word of warning, though, wear nice shoes . | 20/07/2006 |
| The Scotsman, Joyce McMillan | * * * *. Roald Dahl´s hugely successful children´s classic The Twits tells the story of a rancidly unhappy marriage and a husband who likes to give his wife hell. What turns Dahl´s children´s classic from tragedy to comedy is that when the idiotic and smelly Mr Twit lashes out, the horrible and stinky Mrs Twit hits straight back, giving us good as she gets. He puts a wet frog in her bed, she serves up worms in his spaghetti supper, and so it goes on, the one, as revolting and disgusting as the other, in the kind of taboo-busting Dahl display of adult bad behaviour and sheer physical muckiness that has children everywhere roaring with delight. David Wood´s clever stage adaptation of The Twits therefore makes a fine choice for a summer children´s show at Stephen Wrentmore´s beleaguered Byre Theatre - in danger, from next April, of losing the funding to produce its own work. And his production - staged jointly with co-director Rita Henderson -bowls along for a merry hour-and-a-half plus interval, until the ghastly Twits get their comeuppance. Like much modern children´s literature, The Twits is a bit of an animal livertation manifesto, with teams of benign and brainy birds and chimpanzees conspiring to let the Twits hoist themselves on their own petard, and stick them down with their own pot of glue. There´s a fabulous set by Karen Tennent (like a wild dystopian version of an Edward Hopper painting), plus a few excellent twists of audience participation, and a tremendous double-act from Jimmy Johnston and Angela Darcy as the Twits. And with enemies like these - well who needs friends. | 19/07/2006 |
| The Stage, John di Folco | By any stretch of the imagination you are never going to like The Twits, a couple of hirsute, flatulent slobs whose idea of marital bliss is to knock the daylights out of each other and pose a mega threat to wildlife as well. Roald Dahl specialises in victimised children pitted against unwholesome adults and none come nastier than this dysfunctional duo of Swiftian Yahoos. In David Wood´s adaptation, niftily produced and co-directed by Rita Henderson and Stephen Wrentmore, with some great on-stage help from narrator and Eric Morecambe look-a-like Garry Lake, it is the comedic that prevails over any darker, satirical edge. Quickfire, knockabout routines are performed with imagination and a slapstick relish by Jimmy Johnston and Angela Darcy in Karen Tennent´s bright, cheerful set. Their performances revolt with panache and are shot through with an exuberant physical spontaneity which is gloriously funny and goes down a treat with the kiddies and adults. Figures of fun, yes, but malicious meanies too, as the amiable monkey-like Mugglewumps in deepest Africa find to their cost as they are crated away by the Twits. Headed by Philip Scutt and Fiona Steele with a couple of talented youngsters, this lithe troupe charm, tumble, bond as a family and are saved from the sticky clutches and awful economic exploitation by Calire Dargo´s engagingly scatty Roly-Poly Bird. Any production that gets a staid St Andrews audience on its feet doing the rap and waving shoes twice over its collective head, has a certain magic and richly deserves the plaudits. | 17/07/2006 |
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