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A Monster Calls at The Talisman


A Monster Calls, starring Oliver Mason as Connor and Ben Ionoff as the Monster. Photo credit Robert Warner.


A Monster Calls until 31 August 2024 at the Talisman Theatre and Arts Centre, Kenilworth.

Review by Ann Cee.

 

What a superb production last night of 'A Monster Calls', based on the novel by Patrick Ness and devised by Sally Cookson and Adam Peck and the company.  Directed by Caroline McCluskey.

 

This is a really, raw play in the sense that it reaches deep inside its audience and presses a number of well hidden, buttons marked 'sensitive'.  It's therefore perhaps, little surprise to learn that the idea for the play was conceived by Siobhan Dowd whilst she was living with terminal cancer.


A great performance by all the cast. Photo credit Robert Warner.

 

I came away from the theatre with tender thoughts about how tough it can be to be a teenager and how tough teenagers can try to be in order to protect those they care about.  I also came away from the theatre raging at the cruelty that some teenagers seem to revel in irrespective of the harm it can cause and how impotent we seem to be in preventing it.

 

The Talisman production have a very strong cast who provided a lively and sometimes loud performance, full of reflection, movement, tenderness and truth.  As well as a few flashing lights.  It hung together extremely well and kept the story moving along.


An engaging and impressive performance. Photo credit Robert Warner.

 

Teenager Connor O'Malley was fabulously well played by Oliver Mason who took us through a spectrum of grief, confusion and normality with genuine charm and down to earth style.

 

His Mum (Emma Ritson) showed the bravery and care of mums everywhere when trying to protect their family from the realities of their own pain and suffering all the while trying to maintain a firm sense of 'everything carrying on as normal'.  She was a genuine hero as was her slightly difficult mother (Jill Laurie).


A Monster Calls. Photo credit Robert Warner.

 

And the Monster (Ben Ionoff) was an original and suitably menacing manifestation of nighttime fears and anxieties. A wonderfully, scratchy voice with other worldly undertones.

 

This play and the Talisman's production are theatre that rings true to life and wrings out the heart, in a very engaging and impressive way.

 

 

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