Not Now, Bernard & Other Monster Stories

I defy anyone over the age of ten to spend longer than a minute reading David McKee’s ‘Not Now, Bernard’, a delightful picture book about a child so ignored by his parents that they don’t notice when he turns into a monster. The brilliance of Daniel Buckroyd’s adaptation for New Perspectives Theatre Company is that he fleshes out the story into a substantial 50-minute play which is funny, imaginative and touching, yet still in keeping with the spirit of the original. His trick is to frame the title story – supplemented by McKee’s ‘The Two Monsters’ and ‘The Monster and the Teddy Bear’ – with a new story about a little girl trying to get the attention of her parents as they decorate her bedroom. The framing device has three effects. First, it gives the show added emotional resonance as we see the girl’s life reflected and validated in the dilemmas of the stories. Second, it turns the stage into a place of transformation, the girl’s bedroom becoming a mountain, her parents becoming monsters, her unwanted teddy – in a spectacular coup de theatre – becoming a larger than life saviour of the day. And third, it gives the performance a robust dramatic shape and heartening sense of resolution. As a director, Buckroyd shows real flair and his actors, Sarah Niven, Emma Humphries and Mark Huckett, are first rate.