Witches discover that their home territory is being overrun by malevolent elves and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, one of their number is going to marry the local king.
As well as witches there are wizards and other mystical creatures, puppets, Morris dancers and rude mechanicals who, like those in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, rehearse an entertainment to be performed on a wedding night.
There are reunifications, strange alliances, unlikely romances and fights in which large weapons that look suspiciously like painted cardboard deal surprisingly easy deaths.
The fictional world takes a romanticised Merrie England as its keynote, but isn’t constrained by chronology, history or seemingly anything else.
In short, Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies (adapted for stage by Irana Brown) is loads of semi-congruent material thrown together in a way that makes its own kind of endlessly funny sense.
A 20-strong cast on the Globe’s small stage is always a big ask, but seems to have presented no problems to director Sofie Welvaert. Every performer, including several new to the Globe stage, is enchanting, thoroughly immersed in the task and demonstrating excellent physical skills and good use of available space. I didn’t spot a weak performance anywhere.
Globe regulars Laura Wells and Maegan Stedman-Ashford, as senior witches, are great to watch.
Wells’ gushy, confident Nanny Ogg contrasting nicely with Stedman-Ashford’s steely Granny Weatherwax.
Newcomer Brenna Fields is a lovely, mischievous Magrat, the junior witch who decides on a different career path.
Welvaert has won awards for costume design in the past and the costumes for this production, both in terms of overall design and attention to detail, are superb.
Who should go?
Much of the play might not be easily understood by younger children (and the running time of two and a-half hours is likely to be prohibitive), but anyone else should have a great time.
Review by Barbara Frame
