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BrumHour saw The BFG at the invite of The RSC.
By Dave Massey
The BFG at The RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre: Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”You’ll churgle with glee at The BFG”
Directed by Daniel Evans, adapted by Tom Wells
Sophie is kidnapped from her orphanage by a giant and whisked away to Giantland. She discovers even bigger giants are kidnapping and eating orphans from all over the world. She and the giant, whom she befrends as the BFG, then head to see The Queen of England (not a real title!) to warn her of this situation.
This is a production filled with models of buildings, projection, small puppets and huge giant puppets, objects and people get lifted from the ground and light fall from the sky like magic. From the second I arrived, to the curtain call, this felt like a very faithful version of the story, even building a table for the giant to eat from!
The three-sided stage creates a circus-style performance space where the audience is watching from every angle. This puts everyone so much closer to the action than in a regular theatre.
John Leader is excellent at The BFG, and really embraces the quirkyness of the role. Helena Lymbery is brilliant as The Queen, Martha Bailey Vine, Elsie Laslett and Ellemie Shivers all rotate to play Sophie at each performance and its wonderful to see such strong young talent being placed on stage. Richard Riddell is great as Bloodbottler. The puppets are the scene stealers here, as the audience erupted with glee at the very small puppets.
This is a great family show which runs for two hours, including the interval and really zips along. You’ll churgle with glee at The BFG, which is at The RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 7th February 2026. Book tickets here: rsc.org.uk/the-bfg.
