Meet all-star Matilda... she's soooo revolting!

REVOLTING!

- BY ANDY PHILLIPS

That's the pupils of Crunchem Hall, the school where terrifying headmistress Miss Trunchbull reigns supreme, and little girls with pigtails are liable to be thrown by their locks out of the school grounds for being so annoyingly cutesy.With the school's motto translating as Children are Maggots, it’s clear how they are viewed by its leader - but they also carry the spirit of rebellion which makes them doubly 'revolting.

Among them is Matilda, seemingly the only child whose parents don’t think she is some kind of miracle prince or princess, yet who is actually brilliant, in more ways than one.

Apologies if this is sounding familiar, but it can’t be helped that the classic Roald Dahl tale and the way Matilda and her cohort, together with kindly teacher Miss Honey, break the shackles of authority - is so widely known.

But this adaptation by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is certainly no cut-and-paste from the children’s book.