Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett > Reviews > A Review of the Play

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Absolutely
Story	Outstanding
Characters	Outstanding
Listenability	Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
How does it compare to similar audio books?	Excellent
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?	Excellent

Advantages:	Very enjoyable
Disadvantages:	Missing the million to one chance joke out

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Guards, Guards is one of my favourite Discworld novels so there was no way I was going to miss the play when it was showing in my home town. The play was adapted from the book by Stephen Brigg's who does a lot of work with Terry Pratchett, the two names are synominous.
The story revolves around the summoning of a huge dragon and I did wonder how this would be represented on stage. It was very cleverly done with the use of sound, light and smoke effects. The dragon's huge talon made an appearance just before the interval.

The smaller dragon, Errol, who turns out to be the hero, was a cute model which near the end flew over the audience.

The characters were very well presented, just how you would expect them to be from reading the book. Death, one of Discworld's most famous characters, was particularly scary and with the right sound effects he even spoke in what you could conceive as capital letters, just like in the book.

The play followed the book closely with a narrator filling in little bits every now and then. The narrator would arrive on stage ringing a little bell and the characters would freeze until she had finished.
The only time I felt dissapointed was when the guards where on the roof ready to shoot the offending dragon in the vunerables. This the part, where true Pratchett fans should know, where the million to one chance joke appears for the first time. In the play the joke is cut short which I think is a real shame.

The play was really easy to follow, you could even say it was easier to follow than the actual book. Each part flowed naturally into the next without there being much need for lengthy scene changes. It really bought the book to life and I would recommend anyone to go and see a performance.
It truly is a delight for young and old alike, whether you are a Pratchett fan or not. Just one word of warning though, there is a little bad language in the script.

Finally, I hope I do not offend anyone by writing a review of a play here in the book section. However, as you may of noticed, there is not a catagory on Ciao for theatre. Also, the play is based very closely on the book itself.