Peter Viney's Blog

Based on the book by Roald Dahl

Adapted for the stage by Tom Wells
With additional material by Jenny Worton
Directed by Daniel Evans
Set design by Vicki Mortimer
Oleta Haffner- composer

Originally produced at the Royal Shakespeare Company. A co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre
Thursday 26th March 2026, 13.00

CAST
John Leader – The BFG
Martha Bailey Vine / Elsie Laslett / Ellemie Shivers – Sophie
Charlotte Jones / Maisy Lee / Uma Patel – Kimberley
Helen Lymbery- The Queen
Richard Riddell – Bloodbottle
Philip Labey- Captain Smith
Luke Summer- Captain Frith
Sargon Yelda – Tibbs, the butler
+
team of puppeteers

This is one of the fruits of Daniel Evans move from Chichester to the RSC as Artistic Director, in that this production was planned to move from Stratford to Chichester, and long may such co-operation continue. We didn’t book it at Stratford, where it ran across the Christmas / New Year period. We thought of it as a children’s show, and we don’t do the RSC Christmas shows simply because driving 150 miles each way in December and January can be unreliable. Then we had to do the drive to see The Forsyte Saga at the Swan Theatre. We spoke to people in the RSC Restaurant and at the hotel who were ecstatic about The BFG having just seen it. We split The Forsyte Saga into an evening for Part One and a matinee for Part two (something the RSC is not planning in well). As the Swan toilets are impossible in the interval, we walk through to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre toilets at the other end, and there we could see it in progress on the outside monitor screen. ‘We have to see it!’ was the first reaction. Chichester is a much easier drive.

The BFG was car cassettes, then later a circular tin of Roald Dahl CDs. We didn’t see the 2016 film, but this BFG channels Quentin Blake’s classic illustration for the book rather than the film version.

The set was designed for both theatres. In many ways, Chichester has the better stage for it. See above, a semi-circular space rather than a rectangular thrust, though at a guess the set “proscenium arch” is likely to be the Royal Shakespeare rear width (which is wider than the thrust stage itself). Chichester is wider and also has a better music acoustic, while not lacking anything in depth. Financially, Chichester seats more people (1300 v 1010).

It was hard to get decent tickets as it was heavily booked. We wondered about the 13.00 start and guessed right. Designed for schools, though the front premium seats were mainly older people like ourselves. By 12.30 there were lines of schoolkids stretching into the distance, right back across the playing fields. It’s a day when you feel enormous sympathy for the teachers, counting them into the loos, checking constantly. Buses from the Isle of Wight, Cranleigh and West Sussex were outside when we left. The buzz of excitement was tangible. They packed the balconies, waved across at other schools, raised the roof when the lights went up, but were as quiet as mice during the show, until the extended fart joke ending which had gales and tears of laughter. The roar at the end was instant ad deafening, it must have felt so great for the cast. Rarely does any show get that much applause. It was heart warming to be there, watching a love of theatre hopefully being created for hundreds of chiddlings.

The puppetry is astonishing. It takes four puppeteers to manipulate a giant, two inside, two outside. The co-ordination must take many hours of practice. I’ve never seen puppets this well done.

Everyone comes in two or three sizes. Small puppet, live actor, large puppet. Many of the changes are blink and you’ll miss it.

Left: “Human size” BFG (John Leader) with puppet Sophie (there is also a smaller one).
Right: Giant puppet BFG with “Human size” real Sophie.

There are three sets of juveniles due to restrictions on stage time. Today’s were brilliant, though different to the photograph. I’m sure they all are. They have to be lifted, carried, thrown around by the puppeteers.

You must know the story, so I’ll just lift the summary from the CFT website:

One extraordinary night, a young orphan named Sophie is snatched by a giant and taken far away to Giant Country. There she learns that human-eating giants are guzzling ‘norphans’ the world over. But she soon discovers that her new friend, the BFG, is different – he’s a dream-catching, snozzcumber-munching gentle soul who refuses to eat humans. While other giants wreak havoc on the world, the BFG ignites Sophie’s imagination, and they devise a daring plan to save children everywhere. In the end, the smallest human bean and the gentlest giant prove that a dream can change the world. 

Add the important sub-plot. The BFG can harvest dreams. They make a mix of dreams with a touch of nightmare, to get the Queen on their side against Bloodbottle and the other ‘human bean’ eating giants.

She has an obsequious butler (Sargon Yelda), and several footmen to serve her needs, plus two paranoid military officers, Captain Smith and Captain Frith. No one can understand a word Frith is saying because of his enormous moustache.

The human bean eating giants are marvellous. Here the giant puppets have the real life John Leader as BFG – the BFG is a ‘little giant’

I haven’t mentioned the seamless illusions, the Queen disappearing upstage and one second later being in the bed front stage, pans licked clean by a giant, heads bitten off.

The end, the famous flatulence or whizpopper scene is glorious, ending with Helen Lymbury as the Queen bouncing around the stage with the juveniles.

The live music is superb – there are no songs. it is not a musical. If you can get there, see it for the spectacle, for the action, for the story, for the performances.

OVERALL: FIVE STAR *****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:
Some are Stratford. It’s hard to see how it could be rated at less than five. You rank it as children’s entertainment. I do get fed up with the, ‘Oh, well, it’s not Hamlet’ reviewers. Review it for what it sets out to be. Mark Lawson, Guardian, *** is an example. That was 10 December 2025, three plus months ago in Stratford. It now runs like clockwork.

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

ROALD DAHL
George’s Marvellous Medicine, Poole Lighthouse 2010
Fantastic Mr Fox, Nuffield, Southampton 2016

DANIEL EVANS
Edward II, Marlowe, RSC 2025 (actor, Edward II)
Local Hero, Chichester 2022
South Pacific, Chichester, 2021
This My Family, Chichester 2019
Me and My Girl, Chichester 2018
Quiz, by James Graham, Chichester 2017
Forty Years On by Alan Bennett, Chichester 2017
American Buffalo, by David Mamet, Wyndham’s Theatre, London