Awful Auntie at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre - Review

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Thu 28 Mar 2024 - Sun 31 Mar 2024

Birmingham Stage Company’s adaptation of the David Walliams novel Awful Auntie is back on tour and delighting new audiences.

The story is a strange mix of comedy and menace as the young Stella Saxby wakes up one morning in her home Saxby Hall to discover she is imprisoned in bandages and both of her parents are dead. Her Aunt Alberta tells her they were all involved in a terrible car accident and she is now responsible for looking after Stella. But it soon becomes clear Alberta is evil personified and will do anything to get her hands on Saxby Hall.



Adapted by BSC actor/manager Neal Foster, this production comes down heavily on the side of comedy. By ensuring Alberta is a figure of fun rather than of fear, the show becomes a laugh-out-loud experience – rather than a hide behind the cushions one.

Directed by Foster and Richard J Hinds, the two-hour show moves at a rapid pace and even the most horrendous details in which Stella is locked in a cellar or electrocuted are presented in such a way that they lose their menace and become more of a crazed adventure.

Foster takes on the role of Aunt Alberta and does so with bucketloads of enthusiasm, blustering through the action at top speed and with a touch of panto silliness. The scene in which Stella gets her revenge through a series of bathroom misadventures has children bouncing in their seats with laughter.

Annie Cordoni ensures we have a Stella who from the very beginning is unconvinced by her aunt – and determined to get to the truth. She is aided by Soot, played by Matthew Allen, the ghost of a chimney sweep who knows all the building’s hideouts and getaways.

As if it’s not all daft enough, Zain Abrahams is the confused family butler Gibbons who attempts to serve up burnt slippers for breakfast and answer an ear trumpet.



Designed by Jacqueline Trousdale, the set is a revolving Saxby Hall where, like the characters, we can inhabit the entire building from the coal cellar to the roof. The production also makes great use of puppetry designed and directed by Yvonne Stone. Emily Essery guides Alberta’s sidekick the owl Wagner and the lead characters become puppet masters of smaller versions of themselves for some of the exterior scenes.

BSC has adapted a handful of Walliams novels including Demon Dentist, Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy and has a clear understanding of which element of his stories works best on stage. Let’s hope there are future productions in the planning.

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