12:57pm Friday 10th July 2009
By Viv Hardwick
Bringing the Horrid Henry books to the stage, complete with a John Godber script, has been bliss, director Hannah Chissick tells Viv Hardwick.
THOSE who come from the “sit quietly and I’ll begin”
generation may not quite be on the same wavelength as disruptive young Horrid Henry...
unless, of course, you were a fan of Just William.
While Richmal Crompton’s naughty schoolboy William Brown dates back to the Twenties – and is destined for another TV comeback soon – his counterpart today is Francesca Simon’s books about nine-yearold Horrid Henry, who causes just as much mayhem and has been one of CITV’s most-watched programmes since 2004.
Now, prolific Hull-based playwright John Godber has turned the books into a stageplay for Watershed Productions and Horrid Henry Live and Horrid will reach Darlington’s Civic Theatre next week.
“Jump about, play your electric guitar and make as much noise as you can, probably describes Horrid Henry. It’s really anarchic and the play is like a rock concert for children,” says director Hannah Chissick.
It’s Godber’s first family drama and Chissick says: “His younger daughter said she’d leave home if he didn’t do it. So he really didn’t have much choice, but he was a fan of the books anyway.”
The journey to the stage began at the start of 2008 with an initial tour taking in Newcastle’s Theatre Royal before the play enjoyed a Christmas run in London.
“John’s really good at getting things off the ground quickly without endless amounts of talk.
He’s quite a doer and Francesca, who wrote the books, was completely on-board and fantastic. So the source material was all there and begging to be done,” she says.
Chissick and Godber sat down and read all 16 books before the playwright picked out the plots that he thought would work the best on stage. “He wove together this idea of what would happen if Henry had his own show and what sort of show he’d like to make. We wanted it to be loyal to the books and the characters that the children know, as well as being a good introduction to theatre for youngsters who haven’t been before,” she says.
Chissick felt that because the animated characters are so familiar to children that she would look for actors who looked like Henry, Perfect Peter, Moody Mary and Rude Ralph etc. “We did have to find someone who looked like Henry and then John wrote that Henry would have two of himself because one wouldn’t be enough. So we had to cast two actors who looked like Henry. So I remember thinking ‘thanks John’,” she says.
Currently, Steven Tagg and Chris Carswell share the roles and the director is impressed with her cast who take on huge rock and roll numbers and a big balletic football dance routine.
“They are absolutely exhausted and, on occasion, they do the show three times a day. It’s no mean feat to act all these characters, look the part and sing and dance,” says Chissick.
She’s delighted that “there are plenty of parents dancing around as well and embarrassing their children, which is always a good sign”. The songs are all specially composed and performed by Henry’s favourite band, the Killer Boy Rats, who have more than a passing resemblance to Kiss.
Francesca Simon is said to have based Henry on her son Joshua, who is now 20, but Chissick says: “He’s lovely and the most unhorrible person you’d ever meet, so I’m not sure how it’s based on him. Maybe he’s changed a lot.”
She feels that the appeal of Henry is mostly down to our fascination with others behaving badly. “Children don’t want to behave badly for the most part because they don’t want the consequences of bad behaviour.
Horrid Henry allows them to dip their toe into that without repercussions. Theatre allows children to let their hair down and enjoy the slightly naughty side of life. We also had to think what was the new dimension that theatre brought to these stories?
We worked hard to make this show intrinsically theatrical after fans were familiar with the written word and the animation.
So there was a lot of emphasise on the music and movement and we did a lot of work with the choreographer, Nick Winston,”
Chissick says.
She feels that the show’s pedigree means that tickets are going well at a time when families are being more cautious with their cash. “I think we made the right cuts for the Christmas show and now the version going out on tour could be said to have reached adulthood,” she jokes.
She recalls rushing out to read every Horrid Henry book she could after being approached about becoming director as she has no children of her own. “I could probably go on Mastermind now and be pretty good on the subject. Now I’m buying the books for my goddaughter. Of all the research I’ve ever done for a job, long weekends reading Horrid Henry books has been the most blissful,” she adds.
■ Horrid Henry, Darlington Civic Theatre, July 15-18.
Tickets: Adults £10.50-£14.50, children £8.50-£12.50. Box Office: 01325-486555
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/trade_directory/