Something Wicked This Way Comes - The Lowry - 23/10/08 by Jo Beggs

At the age of eighty-eight, Bradbury has dramatised his 1962 novel into a stage play for this partnership production. No stranger to theatre - Bradbury has his own company based in LA - the man described as 'one of America's greatest writers' seems to have no problem transferring his dark, atmospheric prose for the stage, and the cast and production team only add to it with their physical storytelling and inventive design and production.

This is a magical tale - of ageless spirits, freaks and clowns. Will and Jim are two average thirteen year old boys growing up in 1940's small town America, but their lives are changed when a mysterious carnival unexpectedly rolls into town. Cooger and Dark's Carnival harbours a host of delicious characters - an illustrated man, the most beautiful woman in the world, an ancient man fired by electricity and the creepy Dust Witch. Will and Jim are entranced but soon discover the carnival has a terrifying dark secret which could cost them their lives.

The production conjures up the world of 1940's Midwestern America simply and effectively and follows the well worn but much loved plotline of dropping its audience into a small town where everyone knows everyone then twisting to reveal a terrifying, nightmarish trap. Adults and kids will be drawn in to the story, charmed by its sincerity, and well and truly spooked by its underlying evil.

Design by Karen Tennent uses a simple set brought to life with brilliant video projections (by Jonathan Charles and Stephen Charles), slick lighting (by Paul Sorley) and the physical energy of the cast who fill every corner of the stage, drawing the audience's attention in all directions, a three ring circus squeezed onto one small stage.

An ensemble cast create a host of characters, all equally fascinating and compelling, Andrew Clark's Mr Dark is swaggering and seedy, the Jack Sparrow of the circus. Jennifer Paterson's Dust Witch is a fantastic flying creation, with her stitched together face and manic staring eyes she's like a vindictive rag doll. Even the carousel horses (played somewhat unnervingly by Jonothan Campbell and Sean Hay) take on a demonic air. This is not a fairground where a fun night out would be had.

Fantastic, menacing music is provided by David Paul Jones (composer, sound designer and piano) and Robin Mason (cello). And the final credit must go to Jonothan Campbell who, when not wearing a horse head, provides the Dust Witch with her wings through wonderfully choreographed and highly energetic aerial acrobatics.