Review of Not Now, Bernard at the Unicorn Theatre
Want to get some peace and quiet and keep the little ones entertained for a while? Well, you can do no better than pop along to the Unicorn Theatre for their production Not Now, Bernard.
Based on David McKee’s book of the same name, this is the story of Bernard (Guy Rhys) a young boy who just wants to be noticed by his parents. Unfortunately, his Mum (Bea Holland) and Dad (Ben Adams) are too preoccupied with important things like watering plants, and watching the cricket to respond to his warnings that there is a monster in the garden that wants to eat him with anything more than a perfunctory ‘not now Bernard’. Then one day, he goes out to play in the garden and, while he doesn’t return, something larger and hairier does.
Having not read the original book I wasn’t sure what to expect from this production, but as soon as I entered the auditorium and saw Natalie Pryce’s awesome set I had a feeling this was going to be a good show. And it was. With a running time of around 40 minutes, the show started gently with Director Sarah Argent establishing the family dynamic and Bernard’s place in it quite quickly, then moved on nicely to the introduction of the monster. A beautifully choreographed moment with Bernard kicking a ball off-stage and then it being mysteriously returned. This simple but effective technique looked good and elicited a gasp of excitement from the audience of ankle biters around me. I also want to mention Owen Crouch’s excellent sound design which started with birdsong then moved through some excellent classical music highlights to illustrate things happening on the stage. The only thing that worried me in the delivery was that there seemed to be moments when the audience at the ‘far ends’ wouldn’t necessarily be able to see exactly what was happening at the other end of the stage.
However, this is a small point because the kids, of which there seemed to be hundreds, all really enjoyed the show. The moments when the monster threw food around was met with shocked gasps by youngsters who would never do such a thing but probably wished they could. A lot of this was down to Guy’s performance as the monster – I know its a spoiler but I’m assuming not many 3-6-year-olds read reviews – which was everything any child, and a few adults wanted, complete with masses of purple fur and wonderful facial expressions. But you needn’t be concerned about him being scary. The child in front of me did reassure her mother that ‘it’s not really a monster, it’s a man wearing fur’. Ben and Bea were nicely cast as the Dad and Mum respectively and their dismissal of Bernard was nicely done so that it never looked nasty or vindictive.
I’ve just had a look at the original book and my appreciation of the show has really gone up. The colours, costumes and attention to detail in converting this book to the stage is absolutely first rate and Sarah Argent should really be commended for the work put in to bring the story to life so well. I could go into great depth about the moral implications of the story, but let’s be honest, you aren’t going to go an see it for a lesson in child rearing are you? No, you are going to give your wee sprogs a bit of entertainment. And with this production of Not Now, Bernard, you will definitely give them that, and you might even find yourself chuckling along as well.
Review by Terry Eastham for London Theatre 1
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