FABULOUS DAHL-ING!

IN the words of The BFG, "I know exactly what words I am wanting to say but somehow or other they is always getting squiff-squiddled around...

- ADRIAN CAFFERY

So forgive me if this review of a stage version of Roald Dahl's word-mangling masterpiece is sometimes difficult to comprehend!

Fifteen years after I watched the Royal Shakespeare Company turn another of Dahl's classics, Matilda, into an all-conquering musical, it seems they have another hit on their hands. The opening scene, in which a young girl called Sophie is snatched from her orphanage and taken to Giant Country is breathtaking in its creativity, and sets a benchmark which is rarely lowered.

Sophie soon discovers that her big-eared abductor is as friendly as he is big, and nothing like his neighbours, who adore munching on young "human beans".

Together they devise a daring plan to save children the world over, the success of which is solely reliant on winning over the Queen of England (an Eighties Elizabeth II).