The Borrowers

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Stephen Kelly as Spiller in The Borrowers

By Mary Norton. Adapted by Charles Way. Directed by Chris Wallis. With Sarah Dillon, Jack Walsh, Norette Leahy, John Fitzpatrick, Helena Breen, Stephen Kelly and John Burke. The Helix Theatre until 2 January 2005.

Based on the first two books from author Mary Norton, Watershed Productions have managed to bring to the stage an innovative adaptation that captures the essence of simpler times, played with much charm and gusto from the cast.

The story about the little people who live under the floorboards of a country house in England, and who borrow things for their tiny abode through the grandfather clock in the hall, takes its time to get going. That said, the use of puppetry to indicate the little people, with the actors themselves providing their voices offstage, and their interaction with the 'human bean' characters upstairs made up for any shortcomings in the narrative early on.

In the second half, the borrowers emerge from their cosy undergrowth as real actors. They go on a journey of discovery, experiencing on the way the contrasting fortunes of the wider world.

The significance of the grandfather clock gives the tiny people their name - The Clock family. While accompanying her father Pod (Walsh) on their first borrowing trip Arrietty (Dillon) befriends the boy (Fitzpatrick), who is recuperating from rheumatic fever and lives with the stern housekeeper Mrs Driver (Breen). Her mood is further enlivened by alcohol, and the point of attack is the little people. Faced with being gassed to death, the Clock family finds refuge in a large garden, where they make a large boot their home.

The arrival of wild borrower Spiller (Kelly) points them in the direction of their long lost relatives, who also had to leave the house. Mrs Driver is put in her place, and the happy ending, imbued with a carefree dance from the ensemble, left the predominately young audience in good spirits at the show's end.

Judith Craft's design captured the vastness of the outside world, comprising of a large face and arm to show gifts being dropped into the borrowers' home, the array of flowers and shrubbery to depict the garden, and the larger than life shoe, bee and cricket.

Director Chris Wallis' direction was brisk for the most part, apart from the opening period. For a show aimed at a younger audience, it is perhaps better to get things energised early on. However, when the story did gather pace, the energetic cast, which also had Norette Leahy in the role of Homily, Arrietty's mother and John Burke as Crampfurt, were well up to the task of maintaining the momentum to the end.

James McMahon