Tom Scutt’s colour palette is soft hues of muted, dulled pastels, greys, greens and fawns which has a real impact compared to the fairground brights of usual Carousels.  The carousel here is imaginary, twisting poles standing in series on the turntable stage.   Declan Bennett as Billy Bigelow sings and plays his banjo and we can believe why Julie Jordan (Carly Bawden)’s family feel he isn’t a good match for their daughter.  We long for him to swallow his pride and go back to work on the Carousel but he shocks us when he hits out at his wife, striking her in the face.  It is a shocking moment.  Julie’s excuses for Billy’s wife beating don’t convince in the 21st century nor should they have in the 19th century! Carly Bawden and Declan Bennett as Billy and Julie sing beautifully in the duet “If I Loved You” a pretty tune but decidedly from the 1940s.  You’d have trouble finding lyrics as sexist as Billy’s “Solilioquy” when he plans what he would do with his son and then thinks the baby might be a girl,

“You can have fun with a son
But you gotta be a father to a girl
She mightn’t be so bad at that
A kid with ribbons in her hair!
A kind o’ sweet and petite
Little tin-type of her mother!”

But sexism was rife in 1870. 

I liked Julie’s interaction with her friend Carrie Pipperidge (Christina Modestou) and Carrie’s boyfriend, later husband and father of many Enoch Snow (John Pfumojena) as they lead the comedy. 

SPOILER ALERT

After the failed robbery, rather than go to prison Billy kills himself and is given the opportunity to repair the damage he’s done by one good deed. However we are told that each minute in this waiting place is the equivalent of one year on earth.  Billy returns after 16 years which presumably is a wait of 16 minutes and hardly long enough to reflect on what he has done wrong!

His actions back on earth are cataclysmic for him and for the audience. 

Bravo! Timothy Sheader for trying something different with Carousel and please can we see more from Drew McOnie’s heart grabbing dance!