The Borrowers – Hull Truck Theatre

I loved watching The Borrowers when it aired on TV in 1992, and can well remember many of the antics of the Clock family, aka The Borrowers.

Fast forward to today and the teeny family – mum Homily, dad Pod and daughter Arrietty – are still teeny and still just as entertaining.

Hull Truck Theatre has the Clocks gracing its stage until early January 2025, and Tuesday night’s performance proved that size doesn’t matter where talent is involved.

Of course, the Clock actors – Bea Clancy as Arrietty, Deb Pugh as Homily and Marc Akinfolarin as Pod – are all normal size, so in parts were shown as tiny puppets.

Our first glimpse of the family’s underfloor home showed everyday items they had “borrowed”, including a matchbox used as a double bed by mum and dad.

It’s Christmas in the early 1940s, war time, and the Borrowers live under the floorboards of a house in rural East Yorkshire. In order to furnish their abode, Pod “borrows” items from upstairs.

The one thing he insists upon is that Borrowers must NEVER be seen by the “human-beans”.

Talking of humans, a fearsome Mrs Driver (Megan Leigh Mason), looks after the house, but her dusting and sweeping causes dust to continually fall on to the Clocks through the floorboards.

Crampfurl (Rachael Garnett), the rebellious gardener makes matters worse by always banging the mud off of her boots on to the floor.

Meanwhile, Arrietty, desperate to escape the dust, gets permission to go borrowing, which leads to devastating consequences for the family when she’s spotted by Hull lad, George (Ewan Ling), an evacuee at the house.

The youngsters form a friendship and in his subsequent scenes with the Clocks, teeny puppets are used to portray all three, giving us a sense of how small they are compared to George.

George turns out to be a great help and some of the scenes where he helps the Clocks by passing “treasures” down to them through the floorboards are laugh-out-loud moments – and very cleverly done.

So far, so good until Mrs D discovers the Clocks’ hiding place and orders the gardener to spray pesticide into their home.

The sight of all three Clocks climbing into Mrs Driver’s peg bag dropped down by George, to escape the poison, was a scream, changing from a giant bag under the floor, to a tiny one when in George’s arms.

Unfortunately, the family fall through a hole in the bag, sending them on an adventure that would see them facing many dangers in the outdoors – a wasp, a crow and a moth (courtesy of some amazing puppets) and illness – not to mention the winter snow.

Do they all survive and find a place where they truly belong?

This production has everything – comedy, music (courtesy of two on-stage musicians), dancing, singing, amazing costumes, props and stage settings.

As for the script, Charles Way’s adaptation of Mary Norton’s novel had gems such as, when Arrietta uses an onion ring as a hula hoop and her mum tells her to “stop playing with your food”.

All voices were loud and clear, and singing voices very pleasant. In one short scene the speaking voices were drowned out by the piano playing, but it didn’t matter at all.

All actors were perfect for their roles with dual roles for some.

The energy of Megan Leigh Mason as Mrs Driver the bad-tempered housekeeper, knew no bounds. Her antics were one of the highlights of the show.

But, equally entertaining were the rest of this small cast (no pun intended), who fully deserved the rousing ovation they received at the end of the night.

Running until Saturday, January 4th, 2025; 7pm nightly as well as morning and afternoon performances on selective days at differing times; check the website for more details. To book call (01482) 323638 or visit www.hulltruck.co.uk

Reviewer: Jackie Foottit

Reviewed: 3rd December 2024

North West End UK Rating: