The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage (London) London Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsMember Reviews (14)
See it if Gorgeous production! Great acting and imagination. Lots of thought-provoking themes.
Don't see it if you prefer plays where the main character are not young and plays without magical elements
See it if Gorgeous Production and very special adaptation of the book. Great acting and puppetry.
Don't see it if you don't enjoy fantasy.
See it if Quite a magical production. The use of the stage and projection were first class.
Don't see it if Fantasy
See it if you're a fan of Philip Pullman, love puppetry shows, and/or don't mind a show that's aimed at children more so than adults.
Don't see it if you are expecting a clever or interesting play and/or you don't like puppetry. Read more
See it if You liked the lion King way of staging animals. Very clever and engaging. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thrilling.
Don't see it if You don't enjoy seeing the silhouettes of actors playing animals.
See it if You enjoy Philip Pullman and His Dark materials.
Don't see it if You are sensitive to lights.
See it if you like puppetry and immersive theatre
Don't see it if you didn't like His Dark Materials
See it if You love Philip Pullman and would like to see an imaginative staging of the world of daemons
Don't see it if You don't like adults putting on childish voices to play children
Critic Reviews (5)
I suspect kids taken to see this show will gulp down its copious pleasures and skim over the difficult, grown-up bits. I left it, as I often do with Pullman’s work, simultaneously elated and deflated, exhausted from chasing one narrative high after another.
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What is more remarkable is the production’s ability to keep closely to Pullman’s earth-bound and realistic brand of fantasy...Here is the ultimate Christmas show – with sacrilegious twists.
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As a Christmas show, it’s a puzzling choice, particularly given the author’s anti-religious sentiments, and it doesn’t really justify its transfer to this new medium. But it should certainly satisfy the Pullman faithful until the next of his books hits our shelves.
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Good pace, clever scenery projections, an adorable baby and . . . a plot of pure tommyrot: Nick Hytner’s return to Philip Pullman’s fiction is fun to watch but intellectually little more nourishing than cornflakes.
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I would take older children or fans to see this and be confident they’d find something to enjoy and to argue about afterwards. But it’s no ‘War Horse’, and certainly no ‘Northern Lights’.
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