The Wizard of Oz Review – Dorothy Follows the Yellow Brick Road from the Lake District | stage

MMost people come to Keswick to enjoy the mountains and cream cakes. For 13-year-old Dorothy (Nimi Spiff), they are the reason she wants out. What need of scenery and pink snow when you’re in the hustle and bustle of London?

Grieving for her mother and imagining her absent father, she is determined to escape to the capital for Christmas. But a Lake District storm looms, and after crashing through the upstairs window of her aunt and uncle’s house, she is pushed along a different route.

In playwright Sonia Jalali’s hands, L Frank Baum’s familiar characters are present and correct, evil flying monkeys and all, but this is also a story of anger management and self-actualization. Without an outlet for her grief, Dorothy faces the risk of turning her anger into hatred, something the Wicked Witch of the West (Emma Jay Thomas) is eager to exploit. Without a sense of belonging, Dorothy may forget that home is not a place, but rather where the heart is.

Her journey to Oz, where the Wizard (Michael Hugo) turns out to be as disillusioned as her long-lost father, teaches her to tap into her ingenuity and find the courage to stay.

It’s a task that Spiff approaches with emotional truth as the winter trees and rocky skyline of Yoav Segal’s set give way to the bright turquoise Munchkins and lime-green denizens of the Emerald City. She charts a powerful path from rebellious teen to confident teen, and takes time for some soulful singing along the way, even if some of Ziad Djabirou’s songs are wordy.

But elsewhere, Sarah Punshon’s production is keen to please a younger audience – certainly younger than the first-night guests who respond little to the cartoonish humor that will diminish the story’s urgency no matter how old you are. Yes, there’s room for a touch of gravitas a la Vinnie Monacello’s Toto barking, but it’s only with the flutter of the Wicked Witch’s black cloak sweeping across the stage and the high-tech bewilderment of the wizard’s lair that the production becomes serious enough to be engaging.