What a treat, years after reading the book, to finally go for a walk with Daniel Gluck. This is a man who talks of words as things that grow and of the world as something to be read, who throws a watch into a canal to demonstrate how time flies. Ever curious and easily delighted, Gary Lilburn’s twinkling performance as the cheeky old storyteller is the beating heart of Harry McDonald’s new stage adaptation of Ali Smith’s novel Autumn.
An uneven patchwork of a play, this intimate new production seeks kindness and care in our too-often apathetic world. With Daniel asleep in a care home for most of the play, the story is told in jumbled flashbacks as 11-year-old Elisabeth (a wide-eyed, forthright Rebecca Banatvala) shyly meets her old neighbour and quickly falls into a firm friendship that worries and baffles her mother (Sophie Ward, brows creased). Together they take long walks, with Daniel cracking open the world for Elisabeth as they wander and wonder together, turning over truths to see new perspectives, like shining a light through a diamond.
