Going Postal
★★★★☆ First Class
Pleasance Theatre: Tue 3 – Sun 8 Dec 2024
Review by Thom Dibdin
Strawmoddie’s Going Postal, their fourth production of a Terry Pratchett novel adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, is delivered with all due care and attention to detail at the Pleasance Theatre to Sunday.
This is, by its nature, something of an untamed beast, given the vastness of Pratchett’s Discworld and the many favourite characters created over his previous 32 books. Little surprise then at the episodic nature of the production; slightly more surprising is that, with a running time of over three hours, it never outstays its welcome.
Jonathan Whiteside, Gregor Dickie and James Cruickshank. Pic: Robin Mair.
Director Jonathan Whiteside never lingers too long on a scene, but neither does he try to rush it; moving in front and behind the curtain to help the scene changes scurry along. Composer and musical director Dug Campbell is key, with a smashing original score that draws heavily on Christmas – sorry Hogswatch – fare and keeps the continuity bright.
The result should please Pratchett fans and give neophytes a glimpse of what they are missing, as it nips back and forth across Pratchett’s sprawling Discworld metropolis, Ankh-Morpork, where con artist Albert Spangler has been been spared the hangman’s noose if he will take on a new identity and lead the revival of the failing postal service.
perfectly cas
Gregor Dickie is perfectly cast as the post-gallows Post Master General, now going by the name of Moist von Lipwig. He has the necessary sense of bemusement at being saved, combined with a believable drive, as Lipwig learns to live with a golem for a parole officer and come to terms with the chaos of the post office.
Gregor Dickie, Chris Pearson, and James Cruickshank. Pic: Robin Mair.
He also brings a sense of other-worldliness to the role, as Lipwig don’s the Post Master’s gold, winged hat which appears to have mystical powers and channel the words of the lost letters in the post office into its wearer’s head. And he certainly looks the part in the super gold outfit created by costume designer Grace Gilbert.
That post office chaos is well represented by Chris Allan’s tumbling, paper-filled set, superbly lit by by Elissa Webb (her fire scene is wonderfully crafted) and peopled by Chris Pearson, suitably doddery as long-serving junior postman Groat, and Sinclair Davies a sprightly spaniel of a youngster as the troubled apprentice postman Stanley with a predilection for collecting pins.
literal-minded
The cause of Spangler’s demise and Lipwig’s rise is Ankh-Morpork’s patrician, Lord Vetinari, played with well-judged dryness by Whiteside. As director it is a sensible role to take – Vetinari is at the heart of the decision making in the piece but somehow removed from it. Frank Skelly adds a layer of comedy that the literal-minded Vetinari lacks, as his clerk, Drumknott.
Gregor Dickie. Pic: Robin Mair.
While there are many scenes which are drawn verbatim from the original book, complete with Pratchett’s convoluted logic, there are other beloved elements of the novel which are either cut completely or only mentioned in passing. Which is fine generally, but the significance of some plot points become lost, unless you are aware of the original.
What does remain, however, is the depth and nuance behind Pratchett’s veneer of comic fantasy. It is not just the jokes but the nods to what his fans call “round world” (as opposed to Discworld) life, such as when Lipwig invents stamps, the first collector will of course be called Stanley, referencing the world’s oldest philatelists, Stanley Gibbons.
eviscerating
Behind and not so hidden, lie too many layers of commentary to mention. But which include a notably eviscerating analysis of capitalism and monopolies, with the post office the prime example a service created for the public good. And when it takes on the “Clacks” – a newfangled invention which sends messages by code, from tower to tower across the Discworld – it is revealed the Clacks are being run by a cartel of business interests who have been treating corporate banking like the wild west.
Gregor Dickie and the cast of Going Postal. Pic: Robin Mair.
Grace Gilbert is suitably vile as the hard-nosed leader of the Clacks board, Reacher Guilt, who has been miss-managing the service for profit, running it down and using Dario Dala Costa’s creative accountant Horsefly to hid the fact that they bought the Clacks business using its own money.
This was written in 2005, so before the crash of 2008. However it was already apparent where Thatcher’s privatisation drive was leading.
many standouts
And if you thought that had contemporary resonances, the already simmering fermentation about gender, initially from far-right fundamentalist American Christians, is brought into play with Hilary Davies’ prim and proper Miss Maccalariat’s concerns about which toilets the genderless golems are using.
With a 23-strong cast playing at least 38 characters, there are many standouts. James Cruikshank is as prominent as someone wrapped up in brown paper can be as the golem, Mr Pump, voiced by Alex Card. A spiky Caitlin Carter wields her cigarette holder in a way that is rare to see in these smoke free times as chain-smoking Adora Belle Dearheart, the golem campaigner who makes Lipwig’s heart go tickety boom.
Alice Pelan and Ray Finlayson in Going Postal. Pic: Robin Mair.
And there are the Pratchett regulars who make their cameo appearances. Alice Pelan as journalist Sacharissa Cripslock; Ray Finlayson as the vampire photographer, Otto von Chriek; and Ben Blow as the wizard Mustrum Ridcully, Arch-chancellor of the Unseen University.
This is a long show, but it is hard to see how you could tighten it up without reducing its impact. Even so, those areas of skimpy plotting do detract, and need either excising completely or beefing up enough make them better comprehensible.
triumph
That said, the whole production really is a triumph. Whiteside brings many inventive ideas to the ostensibly simple staging, which take it up several levels from where it has any right to be. The production team have created a versatile and entertaining set, props and wardrobe. And the whole cast are right on top of their material.
Brilliant entertainment. Signed, sealed and delivered.
Running time: Three hours and 8 minutes (including one interval).
Pleasance Theatre, 60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ.
Tue 3 – Sun 8 Dec 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat/Sun mats: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
And in even better news, not only has Stephen Briggs adapted 17 more Pratchett novels for the stage, but Strawmoddie plan to stage two of those, Feet of Clay and Monstrous Regiment, next year.
Feet of Clay will be at Cymera, Scotland’s festival of science fiction, fantasy and horror writing, 6 – 8 June, 2025.
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The cast and crew of Going Postal. Pic: Robin Mair.
ENDS
