The Midnight Gang Book Review - David Walliams

 “Children see magic because they look for it” – Christopher Moore

Introduction to the Play

As quoted by Christopher Moore, children look for the magic, one such example of that is the enactment of the book written by David Walliams “The Midnight Gang”. It is dramatized by the Chickenshed theater, it is a theater company for everyone located in the United Kingdom and they have been working since fifty years and created and curated beautiful pieces of literature. It was established and founded by two women in 1974 where Jo Collins was the musician and composer who met with the director and teacher May Ward where both shared the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to perform which led them to establish their theater company (“Chickenshed”). 

Source - savannahshorizon.wordpress.com

Chickenshed Objective

They have gained considerable recognition for their hard work and efforts and also have won awards. They believe in making an inspirational theater working where each individual should be included despite their age, race, ability, and background, they are also a creative hub of the community (“Chickenshed”). 

In a beautiful way they have dramatized ‘The Midnight Gang’ where Tom Chapters who is twelve years old is hurt and is stuck in the children’s ward at the Lord Funt Hospital, and the incharge is the vicious Matron who makes them all miserable and is very strict and the children have a Midnight Gang where they have all the adventures and they have subverted the rule of Matron with the secret activities and it had fulfilled their dreams with the help of a character named Porter who has a ugly face which petrified Tom at first but then when he turns out to be the most kindest spirit of Lord Funt Hospital who actually takes care of everyone.

Dramatic Elements

The dramatization of the book was quite interesting and indulging towards the spectators. The play was encompassed with the themes of humor and sadness and the play begins with Mr. Porter and the children of the Lord Funt Hospital who are suffering but are energetic and as all children are looking for an adventure and how they are filled with understanding as well as having their own personal bias towards other children and how they strategically have adventures right under the nose of authoritative figures and it ends with every dream of every children getting fulfilled and it touches upon various themes both at social and philosophical level. 

The actors performing the drama were skilled and exhibited basic human behavior in the provided circumstances and acted accordingly well, they blended in their role so very well. The adoption of the fictional framework portrayed by individual actors was marvelous and was naturalistic. It was staged on the performing area of the theater; the illusion seemed real, since the actor existed in the dramatic time of two to three days (Schechner). 

About the Performance

It was an ephemeral performance, the objective of the play which was mainly focused on the happiness and the mental health of the children by letting them have adventures was clearly delivered to the audience to let the children have adventure and to give voice to the marginalized people like Porter who had an ‘ugly’ face and was often disregarded. What as a spectator was expected of the play was that it was for entertainment but the values it consisted of were beautifully conveyed through humor and it surpassed the expectations of the spectator. 

The drama was narrated mostly by Tom and in between by Porter, so there were two narrators who acted and narrated the play. Every actor who performed suffered with something like how Tom had a bump on his head, Sally who suffered from cancer, Amber who had fractured arms and legs and was on a wheelchair, Robin who had an operation to save his eyesight, and George who is recovering from having his tonsils taken out in operation. The costume change was of only one character Tom who was unlike others dressed in pink frilled frock; it cracked the notion of stereotype of a boy wearing pink color and a frock. 

Source - bbc.co.uk

The stage lighting was on point as the scenery changed and gradually as the hours passed the midnight clock struck the lightings changed to blue where it was dark and when the day came after the adventures the lightning went back to white lights to indicate the change in the day. The stage setting was of a hospital as explained by Porter and the children’s ward was on the forty fourth floor and the main use of dialogue for the drama. 

There was an element of irony that depicted when the Matron didn’t care about the children and was in charge of the children’s ward at hospital and when the other nurse came Tootsie came for breakfast and asked Thomas for what he wanted and everything was available but didn’t have anything other than cornflakes and cold tea. 

Also there was Aside when Thomas was speaking about the conversation going in his head but was unheard by the character’s on stage and it was addressed directly to the audience, there was also Internal thyme towards the end of the dramatization when Thomas wanted Sally to live her dream and he convinces the others to give her dream “To give someone their dream, Okay midnight gang lets go out with a bang, so here’s the plan”. 

Is It Okay for Children to Dream?

There were so many themes exhibited in the drama; the first one was the humor which was used to make oneself stay motivated even tough times which are seen when everyone is laughing at their own misery. The second was the feeling of comfort which Thomas never felt when he was at a cruel boarding school or never fit in but here he found the feeling as he belonged here with these other children, and he never had friends but here in the single day he had friends who accepted him. The third and often ignored theme was of children as strategist, where they gave the sleep drug to Matron who everyone was scared of and had their adventures, fooled the cleaning lady, defied the rules of the hospital, and also gave the dream.  

One of the crucial themes was of acknowledging the mental health which was done by only one person Portor who believed that children would heal more when they have fun and not just with the strict care. Ironically there was no medicine given to any children in the drama even with the setting of the hospital; the children were creative as well and had new solutions for every problem where one such instance was when George’s dream was to fly and with the help of the balloons that they steal from the pharmacy they help him to fly.  

The dreams of the children were that one wanted to be the conductor of musical instruments, Amber wanted to be the first woman to go to the North Pole, George wanted to fly, Sally wanted to experience normal life, Thomas wanted his parents to care for him. They were all broken lost souls but still they made themselves happy, the main theme was to live in the present where life is precious, every moment is precious and people should be kind to each other while there is still time and kindness was also the prevalent theme.

 

The props used were creative when they had hospital beds but with the handwritten names on them, the ice room was used as North Pole, the pharmacy used as a place where there were balloons, the use of digital reading as lift. The movements of the characters depended on the type of medical recovery they were making but the most movement was of Thomas and the other children excluding Sally. 

There were two characters that portrayed the role of villain; the first was the Matron who was very strict and made Tom believe that his parents didn’t call and the second was the headmaster of the boarding school who burnt all the letters which were sent by his parents. In the end the director of the hospital was so happy and the change of events took a turn when he saw Sally smiling for the first time since she came to hospital which was because her dream was fulfilled of a normal life with graduating school, college, having a partner, getting married and having a kid. 

While her dream was fulfilled by the kids the first kiss of Sally was on the cheek by Amber which also shattered the notion of heteronormativity and focused on this social issue of acceptance of the homosexuals where in a very humorous way it is shown when no boy wanted to kiss her Amber said yes and when she gets married it is transferred from Thomas to Amber and then Amber and Sally get married. 

And Sally had happy tears in her eyes, and when director sees exclaims ‘What was truly wonderful to see was this little patient of mine smiling’ and compliments Portor who was the founder of midnight gang and then was hired back and promoted as ‘Doctor of Fun’ and for each one of them it was an adventure of lifetime, so when Thomas says towards the end that ‘I want tonight to last forever’ but the Portor replies ‘But nothing can’ (Gang), it was a beautiful moment to experience and so it ended with Thomas bidding farewell to his friends with a promise to Sally with whom he shared a special bond promising her to meet and exclaimed ‘I will think of you every midnight wherever we are, whatever we are doing let's meet in our dreams and have the wildest adventures’ (Gang). 

Children’s Literature has Depth

The dramatization of the book was so well done and on stage it was on point. The props, the lighting, the dialogues, the dress up and the delivery of dialogues which depicted emotions clearly and the facial expressions and voice modulation of the performers was excellent. The language was uncomplicated and easy to understand but the message was deep and profound; the direction was good and the play was done very well. 

It felt like reading a story from the book where the inner feelings of the character were also described and narrated. The lines delivered by the performers were comic as well as deep and the actions such as hiding from the villains were comical as well as dramatic. As such there were no insignificant cuts in the play although there was a brief pause in between the play which lasted for a few seconds; the director of the play did not miss any opportunities to bring out the theme and convey some important messages. 

The stage had restrictions of the movements where on stage was a limited space only but were crafted creatively. The actors didn’t seem to be amateurs, they seemed professional child actors and they surpassed the expectations of the audience since they were applauding in the background. 

Final Thoughts

To conclude, the dramatization of the book couldn’t have been done better, since every need of the spectators was fulfilled. This was casted in 2017 where the journey of children is seen and the drama was for an hour and a half. The costume of the Matron and the makeup made it more comical. 

The response at the end where everyone applauded was valid since it brought out the realistic aspect even in the dream world and also focused on nuances and moreover no character on the stage was disregarded or avoided, everyone was acknowledged and everyone had a role to play and each individual character was given an agency of voice. 

It focused on a variety of social construct issues where each subject was equally of importance, and moreover the articulation was well done. Everything was exemplary from the introductory level towards the end the drama was entertaining and eventful eye-catchy. “Actually, the best gift you could have given to her was a lifetime of adventures” –Lewis Carroll.

Written By Divya

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