Mull Theatre, Isle of Mull, 18 April 2009, and touring

The cast of Our Teacher's A Troll (© Peter Dibdin)

WARNING! IF your child is the sensitive type, the kind too delicate to watch Dr Who, then you should approach Our Teacher’s a Troll with caution. For the monster in this National Theatre of Scotland production of Dennis Kelly’s new play is truly frightening. Enormous, bulbous and ugly, with a voice just as unpleasant, he is enough to make anyone think twice before leaving the house, whether to the theatre, to school or wherever it is such foul creatures roam.

If, however, you and your children are made of sterner stuff, then Joe Douglas’s production is unreservedly recommended. Because, as well as being nail-bitingly chilling, this story of young brother and sister Sean and Holly, whose new head teacher turns the school into a gold mine-cum-slave camp for his own Trollish purposes, is raucously funny.

The dilemma faced by Sean and Holly is very serious indeed. Played by Owen Whitelaw and Jo Freer, they are let down by every adult figure of responsibility in their lives, from mother all the way up to prime minister. This is what keeps the look of shocked concern on the faces of the youngsters in the audience: they can imagine it happening to them.

At the same time, the wild improbability of the scenario, the hilarious detail of the script and the brash, cartoon-like delivery of the actors (the same ones who are performing Liz Lochhead’s Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off in the evening in this touring double bill) makes the show thoroughly entertaining for those of us too cool to hide behind the sofa. This balance between the comic and the terrifying is brilliantly judged.

So too is the play’s deeper celebration of childrens’ urge to question and to test the rules. The pupils at the troll’s school have hounded out his predecessor by asking “Why?” once too often. It is only by doing the same to him that Sean and Holly restore order at the end of the play.

Grown-ups may be irritated by such questioning – and by all the horseplay with worms, itching powder and soil in the shoes – but naughtiness and adventurousness go hand in hand, and without this questioning spirit, children would be incapable of taking their own place in the world.

For this reason, perhaps it’s the grown-ups in the audience who take home the greatest moral from this deliciously enjoyable show.

© Mark Fisher, 2009

Links

• National Theatre of Scotland
• Mark Fisher’s Scottish Theatre Blog