Thanks to Stuart Marshall's inventive stage design and Alastair Kerr's vivid, multi-coloured moving lights show, Michael Poynor's stylish take on the RSC version of the film classic is a real visual feast. Its full-bodied effect comes in stark contrast to the grainy, cinematic monochrome of the opening and closing scenes, set in the heart of the Kansas dustbowl.
Here, in the company of straw-chewing farmhands and strict guardians, young Dorothy lives out a mundane, uninspiring existence. But, along the yellow brick road of her imagination, wondrous things start to happen and amusing companions are found to accompany her on the perilous path between good and evil, towards the ultimate goal.
Zoe Rainey has a warm, melodic presence as Dorothy, with Packy Lee doing his usual exuberant thing as the floppy Scarecrow. But there are times when words, choreography and musical score get rather lost in the vast, unfocused space of the Waterfront Hall's main house. At Christmas, the Ulster Theatre Company regularly packs out the venue's more intimate BT Studio with its punchy, high-energy brand of performance, and one can't help feeling that the efforts of this large, hardworking team would have been shown off there to better effect.
Continues until August 26th (bookings on Belfast 334455) and then tours to Birmingham, Oxford and York.