THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

★★★★

“Gather up your kids and have a good time at The Creakers!”

The Creakers is a musical version of Tom Fletcher’s much loved children’s book of the same name. It’s about a group of kids who have to rescue their parents from a sinister world lurking below their beds. It’s a refreshing change from all the overly familiar panto fare on offer on London stages at the moment. As musical adaptations go, however, The Creakers fails to capture the magic of its original material. That’s not because it isn’t a talented production at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank. But this version is a cautionary tale in how difficult it can be to adapt a brilliant story in book form, for the stage.

Set in Whiffington, a town with a waste disposal problem as its name suggests, The Creakers tells us about Lucy, a girl who is “different” though we are never told exactly how. Her single Dad is also the town’s rubbish collector, which adds to her problem of social acceptability. Most of the first act of the musical is about establishing the characters in the story, with frequent references to the social pecking order. There’s also a scandal brewing about the rubbish. The Mayor of Whiffington has decided to get rid of the overflowing rubbish by dumping it in the ocean. This is the inciting incident that sets the main story of The Creakers in motion. It turns out that a bunch of mysterious creatures called the Creakers depend on that rubbish for their food, building supplies, and even for their creativity. At night the Creakers emerge from under children’s beds, and feast on the mess and debris that kids (and their parents) have left lying around. Deprived of their sustenance, the Creakers take revenge by kidnapping the parents of Whiffington. Lucy and the kids have to figure out how to get them back.

It’s a good story, and it plays on childhood fears that everyone, child and adult alike, can identify with. The sustainability theme in the accumulating rubbish is a bit trickier, but from a staging perspective, it gives an imaginative set designer and costume designer lots to work with. Andrew Exeter and Ryan Dawson Laight take full advantage. But the rubbish is also a distraction from the main action. That’s Lucy’s goal of extracting the parents from the underground world of Woleb. (Yes, I figured it out.) And it takes the whole of the first act of The Creakers to get to the point where we finally meet these wonderful creatures, and the show takes off.

Despite the slow moving first act, and energetic songs that don’t always advance the action, The Creakers will succeed in winning you over by the end. The performers give their all to the many different roles they are called on to play, and that includes manipulating the puppet Creakers (designed by Lyndie Wright who knows everything there is to know about puppets.) Tom Jackson Greaves manages both the direction and choreography with flair in a space that is really a concert hall, and not a theatre. The small band produces a big sound with the superior acoustics of the QEH, and it was a treat to actually see them in the second act. Lucy (Eloise Davies) and her friends Ella (Iona Fraser) and Norman (Ally Kennard) are the main movers and shakers in the show but there’s a wealth of talent to see in minor roles all undertaken by a seamless ensemble.

If you’re wondering whether you can risk taking your child to a show that deals in accumulating rubbish and monsters lurking under the bed, have no fear. There’s a guaranteed happy ending. And no one will be surprised to discover that the Creakers are, in fact, the Save the Planet warriors we have been waiting for. As one satisfied customer remarked “I won’t have a nightmare tonight—I’ll have a funmare!” So ignore all the dramaturgical quibbling above. Gather up your kids and have a good time at The Creakers!

THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Reviewed on 27th December 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Pamela Raith

Recently reviewed at Southbank venues:

DUCK POND | ★★★★ | December 2024

KARINA CANELLAKIS CONDUCTS SCHUMANN & BRUCKNER | ★★★★ | October 2024

JOYCE DIDONATO SINGS BERLIOZ | ★★★★ | September 2024

MARGARET LENG TAN: DRAGON LADIES DON’T WEEP | ★★★★ | May 2024

MASTERCLASS | ★★★★ | May 2024

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE | ★★★½ | April 2024

THE CREAKERS

We’re now on BLUESKY – click to visit and follow

★★★★

“If this site, lacks the in-your-face flash of Disneyworld, it more than makes up for it in the energy and commitment of its large and diverse cast”

Dedicated Whovians are in for a treat. The BBC has found a site, allegedly hidden around 1942 but only recently rediscovered, that offers an exciting adventure travelling through time and space with at least some of your favourite characters from the iconic television show. I say “at least some” because this elaborately staged production not only leads the audience through a series of well designed sets, but divides them into small groups, and smaller sets, for exclusive mini adventures. The audience is reunited twice — for a much appreciated break during the middle of the show (complete with your drink of choice and live music) — and at the end of the show for the apocalyptic breakdown and grand finale. If this site, cleverly concealed in a quiet mews just down the road from Bond Street tube, lacks the in-your-face flash of Disneyworld, it more than makes up for it in the energy and commitment of its large and diverse cast. Both “alien” and “human.”

I’d like to tell you more, but the Doctor threatened me (very nicely, of course) with a total mindwipe if I said anything about the plot. “The first rule of Time Fracture is….” — so I hope, prospective intrepid time traveller, that you’ll forgive me.

I can say that for me (and my companion) this was a great way to spend an evening in London. Social distancing seems less noticeable when the audience is constantly on the move and involved in the action. There was plenty of recognizable timey-wimey stuff going on for Doctor Who fans, and if it was a bit shouty-wouty — well, there was a lot going on all over the place, and with different groups of people. The actors managed this remarkably well, considering that they were costumed from head to foot (often unrecognizably so) in small spaces on the hottest and most humid evening in London this year. They also had to be very deft with the improvised conversations, and to deal with audience members who tried to change the plot on them, or claimed to be at least one thousand years old. In some ways Doctor Who: Time Fracture will feel a bit like the haunted house exhibits for Hallow’een. In this show, however, the sets and costumes are way more cool, and yes, scarier in at least one instance. No, I’m not going to tell you. Spoilers!

Doctor Who: Time Fracture would be a good choice of event for a blind date or even a first date. You won’t be able to talk to each other with all the noise and excitement going on, but by the end of the evening, you will know if your prospective is Time Lord material — or just a mere mortal destined to be jettisoned straight back into the universe’s dating pool.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Mark Senior

THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

★★★★

“Gather up your kids and have a good time at The Creakers!”

THE CREAKERS

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Reviewed on 27th December 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Pamela Raith

Recently reviewed at Southbank venues:

THE CREAKERS

THE CREAKERS

THE CREAKERS

Unit HQ

Reviewed – 16th June 2021

★★★★

“If this site, lacks the in-your-face flash of Disneyworld, it more than makes up for it in the energy and commitment of its large and diverse cast”

I’d like to tell you more, but the Doctor threatened me (very nicely, of course) with a total mindwipe if I said anything about the plot. “The first rule of Time Fracture is….” — so I hope, prospective intrepid time traveller, that you’ll forgive me.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Mark Senior

Doctor Who – Time Fracture

Unit HQ until April 2022

Reviewed this year by Dominica: