Matthew Rutherford, left, and Jared More in Riding Lights Theatre Company’s The Selfish Giant
RIDING Lights Theatre Company steps back into the magical world of the Giant’s garden in this season’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant.
Premiered under the artistic direction of the late Paul Burbridge in 2019, Jon Boustead’s stage adaptation of Wilde’s story from his 1888 collection The Happy Prince And Other Tales is being revived by the York company at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, this week ahead of this autumn’s 18-date tour, all preceded by a performance at The Big Feastival over the August Bank Holiday weekend on Blur bassist Alex James’s farm in Kingham, Oxfordshire.
Artistic director Paul Birch directs Riding Lights returnees Jared More and Matthew Rutherford in an itinerary that will take in further Yorkshire performances at The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds, September 13 (2pm); Skipton Town Hall, September 18 (11am & 2pm); CAST, Doncaster, September 27 (11am & 2pm); St Edmund’s Church, Roundhay, Leeds, September 28 (5pm); Gate Helmsley Village Hall, October 1 (6.30pm); Junction, Goole, October 4 (2pm), and Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, October 26 (2pm & 6pm) and October 27 (11am and 2pm).
In a 50-minute show full of music, beauty, bird song and stories, the Giant is cross when he returns to find children – children! – playing happily in his beautiful orchard. Every day after school, they laugh and play games under the blossom trees, prompting him to erect a big wall to terminate their fun. Worse still, once winter seizes the garden in its icy fingers, will summer ever come back?
Riding Lights brings a fast-moving combination of storytelling, interactive games, live music and puppetry to The Selfish Giant’s inspirational tale of love and generosity, suitable for children aged three upwards and their families.
Performances at 1.30pm and 4.30pm at Friargate Theatre will be complemented by free craft activities, available each day between 12.30pm and 6pm in the café/bar space, and a meet & greet with Jared and Matthew will follow each performance.
Jared, last seen on Riding Lights duty in Christmas Inn Trouble last winter, will play Jack, the Storyteller, as well as voicing the puppet of a little boy and joining Matthew in playing the daffodils Daffy and Dil and wintry double act Snow and Frost. Matthew will be Smog the Giant on his return to Riding Lights after appearing in Night Falls and As You Like It.
Jared More and Matthew Rutherford’s daffodil duo Daffy and Dil in Riding Lights’ The Selfish Giant
“One of my first jobs after theatre training was appearing in The Selfish Giant in Riding Lights’ Christmas tour in 2019, directed by Paul Burbridge, when we toured mainly around North Yorkshire,” recalls Jared, who bears a distinctive Isle of Man accent. “We them made a film version, filmed in 2020 when Covid restrictions were lifted before locking down again for Christmas that year.”
Paul is delighted that Riding Lights is revisiting The Selfish Giant, a story that shows another side to Oscar Wilde. “He wrote a lot of children’s stories and this one really fits in with those stories being sweet and kind and loving, when we think of Wilde having an acerbic wit in his comedies of manners. The Selfish Giant shows a side of him that people maybe don’t know as well.”
At the same time, the imposition of barriers in The Selfish Giant chimes with his own experiences. “Wilde knew what it was like to be excluded,” says Paul. “In the story, you have to go to a sad place to then have the redemption arc,” says Jared.
“It’s also about friendship and care, with a message that when someone is feeling sad, it’s best to stick around,” says Paul. “I like how the little boy brings care back to Smog’s life,” says Jared.
“If someone thinks the story is about bereavement, that works,” says Paul. “If they think it’s about lost friendship, that works too.” “Or if they think it’s about bullying, that also works,” says Matthew.
“As it’s a story for age three upwards, we’ve talked about it being about an emotional, rather than intellectual, response,” says Paul. “I love that we can make a work that is playful and celebratory but it’s also not frightened to tread on emotional territory – and you can really feel that emotional response being experienced together in the room.”
Matthew says: “It’s fun to perform, particularly with it being interactive, so there are these emotional moments that really hit home, but we also get the children in the audience to plant flowers in the Giant’s garden and later water them – and there’s something magical about that.
The Selfish Giant director Paul Birch
“Those moments connect us and we can honour children being part of the creative process, engaging with them in a way that is a privilege for us, when that would be harder with older audiences.”
Jared says: “One of the things I love about it is the essential ‘liveness’ to the show, where we’re actively inviting involvement. You have to go with how they react, so you are co-creating with the children, collaborating with them, which is something I love with children’s shows.”
Matthew adds: “There are those moments where the children can be complicit in it, like when a child spotted I had the wrong sock on the wrong foot and I could then acknowledge that they’d spotted it.”
This week’s audiences should expect a show delivered at breakneck pace. “That’s not to say it doesn’t have light and shade, but it’s definitely high energy,” says Jared.
“But we’ve also trimmed it slightly to focus on the storytelling in the slower moments, which then resonate more,” says Matthew.
“It’s not frenzied storytelling, but when the show’s fast, it really is fast,” says Paul.
Riding Lights Theatre Company presents The Selfish Giant, Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate Theatre, York, until Saturday, 1.30pm and 4.30pm, and then on tour from September 12 to October 29. Box office: ridinglights.org/theselfishgiant.
