Theatre Review: Gulliver – The MAC

I won’t say we weren’t warned. If you had previously read our preview of the latest production of Gulliver at The MAC in Belfast, you would know that the description was simple: “a hilarious homage that couldn’t be more different than Swift’s original”. We kept hearing that “Whatever you’re expecting. You won’t be expecting this.”

Well, we definitely weren’t.

As we seat ourselves in the theatre around 5 minutes before the show is due to start, the characters are dispersed throughout the audience yelling to each other and chatting. A card is being passed around which reads ‘WELCOME HOME GULLIVER’ and we’re instructed to sign it, put up banners, blow up balloons and tie them to the aisles.

The atmosphere is joyous and everyone’s getting into the spirit of things quite nicely. Gulliver’s wife (played by the magnificent Shelley Atkinson) has a bit of the Mrs Doyle about her, buzzing around and barking instructions – her Irish accent adding to the comedy. It soon becomes clear that we’re all guests at Gulliver’s big homecoming party after his travels and we anticipate his big entrance.

The lights go down, we all yell ‘SURPRISE’ and the few hours that follow are extremely hard to put into words. Gulliver has returned from his travels, but this time he’s changed – after living in a land ruled by horses for years, he has abandoned English, neighs like a horse, stomps his feet and just wants to be on his own.

The stage set is interesting – a massive screen stands at the back of the stage, whilst a kitchen scene makes up the forefront, arching over this is a platform with an oversized ladder to represent the upstairs floor of the house. The use of the screen is very clever indeed – the bottom corner is reserved for the view out of the kitchen window, whilst the rest of the screen is used for various other projections which help to make this an immersive experience.

In the first half of the show we meet Gulliver’s family – his wife Mary, his devoted daughter Betty, his dancer son Johnny, his old mum and his new-born Tracey, alongside Jim the horse whisperer. Each character has their own strong personality that for the most part really shines through (in my opinion the weak characters are Betty and Gulliver’s mum – they didn’t add an awful lot and got a little lost in the mayhem at times).

We learn of Gulliver’s previous adventures in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, all told by Gulliver himself (played by Bryan Quinn) acting out the stories with the help of the big screen. From tiny people to giants, this portion is extremely entertaining and Quinn is beyond perfect casting for this role. You would be forgiven in thinking that with all this frivolity that this is a show for kids – but be warned, there is some adult humour to be found.

The second half is a little more wishy washy – the story isn’t as tight and I feel that it verges on ‘too much’ at some points, but nonetheless it’s all very entertaining. It’s in this half that we hear about the other lands of Laputa and the horse ruled Houyhnhnm (pronounced hwinnum) that Gulliver now aligns himself with. Telling you much else might detract from the story, but it’s safe to say that as someone who had only ever heard of Lilliput, this is a great and very interesting way to convey Gulliver’s less well-known travels.

The three words used to describe Big Telly Theatre Company’s Gulliver on the programme are #uproarious #outrageous and #unexpected and I’d be inclined to agree with all three. This is absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and if you’re a fan of something a bit different then I’d more than recommend you check it out. Gulliver is on in The MAC until 17th October and you can find out more information or book tickets here.