The Fifth Elephant

Those addicted to Terry Pratchett's Discworld series are well aware that the success of the books is due to a complex and quirky combination of elements: the wondrously fractured logic of Pratchett's Discworld itself; the bizarre cast of characters that the author has created (and adds to book after book); the idiosyncratic (but logical) plotting; and - most of all - Pratchett's authorial voice, commenting, explaining, wisecracking. It might seem that to remove Pratchett's voice by converting a book to a stage production would sink the ship. But not so. Pratchett has been lucky in enjoying some very adroit dramatizations of his books, where more than enough of the original flavour has been transmuted into a new medium. Here Stephen Briggs's clever telescoping has made a baggy novel into a swift-moving and diverting piece. Commander Vimes is dispatched to a savage, grip-of-winter Uberwald (distantly related to Transylvania) to set up trade links with the King of the Dwarfs, but he finds himself caught up in an inter-species war. Helping him out is a motley crew: a talking dog, a vampyre who's given up drinking blood and a self-made man (who still displays his stitches). The doughty commander finds himself an escaped prisoner, on the run from a pack of fascist werewolves. As an adaptation, this is top drawer - almost all the best of Pratchett's novel is here. Having said that, it would take a very special production to do it justice. Perhaps it's best just to read the play and enter the theatre of the mind? (Kirkus UK)