DESPITE enjoying the dubious reputation of being WH Smith's most shoplifted author, Terry Pratchett is a publishing phenomenon. Guards! Guards! is just one of the 21 Discworld novels that has been translated into 26 languages before readers buy the
T-shirt, play the computer game, and polish the figurine.
Only natural then, that Pratchett has a crack at the stage with an adaptation of Guards! Guards! boasting his trademark mix of fantasy, sci-fi, folklore, and humour. Replete with dragons, dwarfs, and an orang-utan that communicates via charades, Guards! Guards! is nothing if not lively. Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets as the viewer ends up wondering if they have wandered into a pantomime come early by mistake.
Set in the city of Ankh-Morport, where citizens more or less please themselves as far as matters of law and order are concerned, Paul Darrow struggles manfully as whisky-loving cop Captain Vimes, charged with rescuing the city from an evil dragon. This is completely overshadowed by every trick in the Vaudeville book - a one-paced direction, incredibly obvious special effects, and a cast flaunting themselves as extras from the death-bed of the Carry On series. Pratchett will go down in the history of contemporary fiction on the back of his rich imagination and Python-esque humour, but on stage the magic of fantasy is lost and the play falls flat; to enjoy this you must surely be a legal (or otherwise) purchaser of his books.
n At His Majesty's, Aberdeen to Saturday, and Edinburgh King's Theatre for a week from Monday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article