Gulliver’s Travels – The Watermill Theatre, Bagnor

Writer: Jonathan Swift

Adaptor: Toby Hulse

Director: Ade Morris

Reviewer: Carol Evans

The Public Reviews Rating:

Gulliver’s Travels, a classic of English literature, is one of those books that everyone knows about but perhaps few people have actually read, except maybe to their children in an abridged version.

But anyone believing that this is kiddies’ fiction, should think again. These tales are not just about ship’s surgeon Gulliver’s jolly adventures with the manikins of Lilliput or the giants of Brobdingag. They are far darker than that as the company at the Watermill Theatre, near Newbury showed to brilliant effect in their terrific touring production.

With a raging thirst for knowledge, our hero sets off on his voyages of discovery not so much to see far off lands, but to learn about other societies and his place in them. In his journeying, he comes across corruption, hatred and greed and wants no truck with those cultures. However, when he does find the morally idealistic society he craves, he, himself, is found wanting and is rejected outright.

Writer Toby Hulse has adapted Swift’s satire on human nature to show perennial traveller Lemuel Gulliver’s gradual descent from happy-go-lucky optimist after his first voyage to deranged madman upon his return from his fourth and, we presume, final trip.

For sheer inventiveness, the busy set itself deserves top marks. Upturning a table here, twisting a cabinet there, the small Watermill stage is transformed from early 18th century dining room to study, to windswept deck to untidy attic. There are props galore, but none are purely for decoration: each has a use, often in more ways than one.

We, the audience, hear about Gulliver’s incredible adventures, as he relates – and re-enacts – them to his cousin, London publisher Richard Sympson, with a view to their publication.

And, particularly in the first half, they are hilarious. Through ingenious use of the aforementioned props and a very agile and athletic cast, we see, for example, how the intrepid traveller was captured, tied down and treated by the diminutive Lilliputians, then with tables turned, how he became the plaything of the Brobdingag giants. There’s some wonderful comic ‘audience participation,’ as we become the sea, passing paper boats over our heads to denote the stealing of Lilliput’s enemy fleet. Brilliant fun for all!

But just as we are bathing ourselves in the rosy glow of laughter surrounding Gulliver’s first two journeys, things begin to darken as we learn more about his other trips and their consequences in the second half.

Morgan Philpott is superb as the exuberant Gulliver, displaying a full gamut of moods from devil-may-care optimism to the depths of despair and his ultimate destruction, unable to relate to his own family, unable and unwilling to accept help. A bravura performance.

Verity Hewlett is excellent as Gulliver’s long-suffering wife Mary, worried to the point of tears about her husband’s desire to disappear and his increasing introspection. This prompts her to join him on his third voyage for the sake of family unity.

Michael Strobel is very good as sceptical cousin Richard Sympson, who when regaled with a record of Gulliver’s adventures, continually asks the question, ‘but is it true?’ When he finally witnesses Gulliver’s desolation, we are forced to believe that maybe those travels were, indeed, in his head.

This is an exciting, humorous and thought-provoking play that should go down well with audiences on the Watermill’s rural tour of village halls and community centres.