Theatre Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Noël Coward Theatre - an undefinable magic.
(L-R) Domonic Ramsden, Keir Ogilvy, Aimee McGolderick and Millie Hikasa. Image by: Brinkhoff Moegenburg
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
Full disclosure, this is the 5th time I have tried to write this review, because nothing I have come up with comes close to summarising quite how magical this production is. So please factor that in as you read on.
Just how powerful are our imaginations? Do we ever really stop being the children we once were? And where exactly does imagination stop and reality begin, or are they all tangled up together? All questions explored in Joel Horwood’s adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel, currently in it’s final 4 weeks at the Noël Coward Theatre.
The story centres around a Boy, who we meet as an adult when he revisits his childhood home for the funeral of his father when he meets the grandmother of his best friend. We flashback to him as a 12 year old, grieving his mother’s death and we go on a fantastical journey with him through that period in his life.
There is a magic to being a child, especially being a child that reads. When life feels overwhelming and impossible to navigate, and the adults around you don’t know how to help, there’s safety in stories. Being transported to faraway lands where anything is possible, there are no limits to what you can do other than what you can imagine. Simply put, I have never seen a stage show so wholeheartedly capture this feeling.
And there is more than a little bit of magic in this. It utilises so many different elements of theatre - illusion, puppetry, dance, light performance - and yet it feels perfectly balanced. Every one of them a precisely measured out ingredient in this melting pot of performance art. The set design and scale of the props feels like something you’d see in a high budget multi-episode TV series, it’s visually breathtaking throughout. Whilst no element outshines another, special mention has to go to the ensemble. It’s not often you go to a performance that simply does not stop from the moment it begins to the moment it ends, but the almost balletic movements of this ensemble as they transitioned sets and scenes meant that this show does not pause. You don’t for a moment come out of the world they’ve crafted for you.
You can tell this cast have been working together for a while - the production had been touring the UK since December 2022 before returning to London to complete - the chemistry is electric and they know their characters inside out. Charlie Brooks as Ursula is a masterclass in playing the antagonist. Sinister yes, but she counteracts that with a depth of humanity that has you almost sympathising with her plight. I have perhaps never seen a sibling dynamic better understood, better captured than in this show by Daniel Cornish (Alternate Boy) and Laurie Ogden (Sis). Despite all the actors clearly being adults, it really doesn’t take long for you to believe they are children in their world of make-believe, finding safety in their stories.
And ultimately, isn’t that what theatre is? For the perfomers, it’s a space where adults have permission to be children again. To play pretend, to explore stories freely and create worlds where there wasn’t one before. And for the audience it is a space to escape, to feel seen in a story, to use someone elses words to understand the place you find yourself. In that sense it feels almost a little meta.
With actors running through the audience, props that are larger than life and appearing from all angles, and a use of sound that is almost cinematic, this production feels immersive without being overwhelming. Like you too are immersed in the ocean at the end of the lane, reminded of the magic that exists all around us if we allowed ourselves to see it.
Ocean at the End of the Lane is running at the Noël Coward Theatre until November 25th. Tickets available here.