The Timothy Dalton Chat Group PresentsIntroduction to Press Reviews of His Dark Materials.
In September 2003, I was told that Timothy had signed to be in two plays at the National Theatre in London, called His Dark Materials - Part One and Part Two. Many were thrilled because it gave us a chance to go and see Timothy on stage, but when it became a huge success with all tickets for both plays sold out by the end of December 2003, many more of us were truly thrilled for Timothy though.
His Dark Materials is based on the novels by Philip Pullman adapted by Nicholas Wright. This riveting story unfolded over the course of two plays, and you could See Part I and Part II on separate dates, or enjoy both on the same day in a dazzling double bill.
Synopsis:- There are as many worlds as there are possibilities. I toss a coin. It comes down heads. But in another world, it comes down tails. Every time that a choice is made, or a chance is missed, or a fork in a road is taken. a world is born for each of the other things that might have happened. And there, they do.
His Dark Materials takes us on a thrilling journey through worlds familiar and unknown. For Lyra and Will, its two central characters, it's a coming of age and a transforming spiritual experience. Their great quest demands a savage struggle against the most dangerous of enemies. They encounter fantastical creatures in parallel worlds - rebellious angels, soul-eating spectres, child-catching Gobblers and the armoured bears and witch-clans of the Arctic. Finally, before reaching, perhaps, the republic of heaven, they must visit the land of the dead.
It's an epic production both in its narrative scope and its staging, involving artists from new technologies as well as old. Nicholas Wright adapts Philip Pullman's three cult novels into two big plays for a cast of more than 30. His Dark Materials is one of the National's most ambitious projects, and aims to create an experience as meaningful for 12 year olds as for adults.
Some of the pictures you can download larger copies of by clicking on the smaller version, and you will know which pictures these are because I have put a number like this (1) before the description of the actual photograph. There are five photographs in all on this page, where you can take larger copies, and I have made sure you can do this for all the pictures that feature Timothy.
Here is some of the wonderfully positive press reviews for Timothy's project of His Dark Materials.
HIS DARK MATERIALS PART 1:
Review by Luke Williams.
(1) Anna Maxwell Martin, as Lyra Belacqua. Timothy Dalton, as Lord Asriel and Lord Asriel's dæmon called Stelmaria.
Photograph credit © Copyright Ivan Kyncl 2003.
After an absence of 15 years, Timothy Dalton is back on the London stage in his first role since his acclaimed performance as Cornelius Melody in A Touch of the Poet. Demonstrating the willingness to take creative risks that has characterised his career, his long-awaited return comes in one of the most ambitious productions ever mounted in London - a two-part, six-hour epic at the National Theatre based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.
The task of adapting Pullman's fantastical and ambitious work, which features witches, polar bears, soul-eating spectres and inter-dimensional travel, would have defeated many a film studio, let alone a theatre company. As director Nicholas Hytner himself declared during pre-production: "When I took this on, I thought it was unstageable."
However judging by last night's performance of Part One it is already in fine fettle and it is to Hytner's credit, as well as that of scriptwriter Nicholas Wright, the production team and the cast, that their collaboration has produced such an exciting piece of theatre. Having not read the original novels I cannot say whether it will satisfy die-hard Pullman fans, but the three hours plus certainly whiz by and contain enough spectacle and adventure to keep children entertained and enough food for philosophical thought for adults. A play that speaks of the choices we make, moral and otherwise, as well as the possibilities at our fingertips to determine our own fate and futures, the production is also a complex rites of passage tale.
Anna-Maxwell Martin's excellent performance as Lyra is at the centre of the play - and the amount of stage time for which she has to carry the production is staggering. She proves utterly undaunted by this or the tricky task of playing a 12-year-old girl though. By turns moving, inspirational and gutsy, her performance is inflected with just the right amount of child-like expressions and physicality without ever veering into caricature.
(2) Timothy Dalton, as Lord Asriel and Lord Asriel's dæmon Stelmaria again.
Photograph credit © Copyright Ivan Kyncl 2003.
If Martin is the play's charming heart then it is Dalton's performance that provides a welcome touch of danger and dynamism. Even before his character Lord Asriel appears the tones with which he is discussed make the drama surrounding his impending arrival acute. When he finally takes to the stage he does not disappoint. Clad appropriately in full explorer's garb, his performance is a beguiling blend of the natural and the theatrical, and also provokes echoes of great English adventurers such as Sir Ranulph Fiennes or Captain Scott. In an admirably energetic manner, Dalton portrays Asriel as a passionate adventurer worthy of respect and admiration, yet also manages to convey the darker side of his nature and the human costs his obsessive zeal has wrought on others.
Whenever Dalton is on stage the production benefits - his entrances and scenes often acting as a catalyst just when the pace is threatening to drag. Having made his name in classical stage roles, it is also heartening to see him extending his acting skills by performing in a more modern piece - operating in a contemporary setting alongside elaborate puppets in the midst of complex and varied revolving sets. His placing at the very top of the stage at the cliffhanger of a climax to Part One is a highlight of the visually arresting tableau with which Hytner closes the play and certainly whets the appetite for Part Two.
There are admittedly some flaws with the production. At times the quick-fire plotting, which bears the hallmarks, perhaps, of over-faithfulness to the original plots, comes at the sacrifice of character development - such as the brief scene between Dalton and Patricia Hodge's Mrs Coulter where the two actors do extremely well to convey a wide gamut of emotions while only aided by some flimsy dialogue.
However these are relatively minor concerns. Overall, the scope and ambition that lie behind the project, as well as its professional execution, are to be applauded, as is Dalton's return to his stage roots. This writer, for one, hopes that it heralds a longer spell on the stage for Dalton in a variety of new productions. The London theatre, which so often casts 'stars' who possess little theatrical background or aptitude, needs more actors of his superior technique and integrity.
N.B. With the production's press night having been moved to 3 January the above review refers to a performance which should still be considered a preview, rather than the finished product.
Review of His Dark Materials © Copyright Luke Williams December 2003. All Rights Reserved.
I would like to say a very big thank you to Luke for taking the time to write his wonderful review of His Dark Materials - Part One for me to share with you all.
Pullman's Magical Fantasy Becomes a National Treasure.
David Smith, Arts and Media Correspondent - Guardian, UK, Sunday January 4, 2004
Daemons, cliff-ghasts, lovelorn witches, gyptians, harpies, armoured bears, soul-sucking spectres and tiny creatures riding dragonflies - the magical creations of writer Philip Pullman soared from page to stage yesterday in what could be the most spectacular theatre blockbuster ever.
His Dark Materials, a two-part, six-hour adaptation of the bestselling epic fantasy, had its world premiere at a sell-out National Theatre after early word-of-mouth praised it as 'thrilling', 'momentous' and 'the ultimate children's show'.
Pullman's writing has been dubbed 'Harry Potter for grown-ups', and the His Dark Materials trilogy was voted the nation's third favourite book in the BBC's Big Read poll. Its author, a former schoolteacher, has earned comparisons to Tolkien and C.S. Lewis but his anti-Christian polemic has been condemned as 'blasphemous' by the Association of Christian Teachers, which called for the show to be banned.
Pullman's story unfolds simultaneously in multiple universes, with locations ranging from leafy Oxford to the ghostly Land of the Dead, and climaxes in heaven with the death of a senile God. Many questioned whether it was possible to translate it to the theatre and the director, Nicholas Hytner, admitted that attempting it 'felt crazy'.
But his solution has held preview audiences spellbound with more than 110 rapid scene changes that include an entire room rising from and sinking back beneath the stage, revolving platforms, a flying hot-air balloon, a vast mirror, video footage, computer graphics, 90 puppets, hundreds of props and a dazzling array of special effects.
One of Pullman's best-loved but trickiest inventions, the daemons - devoted animals that are a physical manifestation of a person's soul - become paper puppets illuminated by an internal light and controlled by masked operators dressed in black so the audience almost forgets their presence. His armoured bear - warrior polar bears - are suggested by costumes and masks held forward by the actors in a technique reminiscent of the stage version of The Lion King. A machine that separates children from their daemons conjures moments of spinechilling horror.
Hytner, who warned on the first day of rehearsals that they would have to run 'like a military campaign', has marshalled an army of 30 actors, 24 stage crew, eight electricians, eight musicians, five stage managers and four sound engineers as well as some of the most high-tech stage machinery ever assembled. It cost an estimated £850,000 - significantly less than many West End musicals.
Adapting the story for the stage was an 18-month task for playwright Nicholas Wright, and rehearsals took twice the normal two-month period for a National production, with actors working six days a week. The central characters, Lyra and Will, are played by Anna Maxwell Martin and Dominic Cooper, who though in their twenties have won early praise for their portrayals of 12-year-olds wandering between parallel worlds. Lyra's parents are played by Timothy Dalton, the former James Bond star, and Patricia Hodge.
The theatre created a puppet department for the first time in its 30-year history to produce designs by Michael Curry, mastermind of The Lion King. Jon Morrell, the costume designer, spoke of 'almost sleeping at the National. I've never worked on anything like this in scale and ambition.' The monumental enterprise almost became too much when some previews were cancelled and the first night was postponed from 20 December due to 'insuperable' technical difficulties.
Two weeks later, His Dark Materials looks set to be Hytner's crowning glory after a triumphant first year as artistic director of the National. The show, which runs until 20 March, has been such a hit at the box office that all 126 performances in the 1,100-capacity Olivier auditorium are sold out, although 30 seats and 64 standing places are available each day from 10am. The technical scale and complexity of the two-part production, which runs as a double bill on Saturdays, means a West End transfer is highly unlikely, but it could well be revived at the National next Christmas.
Michael Rosen, the children's writer and critic, who attended a preview last week, said: ' The magic is as good as it could be. I loved it.' Liz Queenan, 60, a BBC children's TV production manager from Marylebone, London, said: 'The storytelling is tremendous, really imaginative throughout. The way they've achieved the super natural effects is very impressive.'
Danielle Walerman, 40, from Hendon, north-west London, said: 'It was fantastic. The technology was outstanding. It was great to see the technical crew come and take a bow at the end.' Her daughter, 14-year-old Gaby, added: 'If you're going to make a play of books that are so deep then this is as good as it can be, the ultimate children's show. Some plays and films spoil your imagination but in this the actors looked like the characters I expected.'
Their father, Anthony, 42, a marketing director, said: 'It was interesting during the interval to see how many parents were having it explained to them by their children.'
Kate O'Hara, 13, from Datchet, Berkshire, said: 'It was amazing how quickly they changed the scenery. But the parents should be more evil. In the book they're very evil.'
Terri Paddock, editor of whatsonstage.com, said: 'His Dark Materials is the biggest thing in theatre in the last 12 months. The National is setting the pace theatrically. The challenge for the West End and others is how to keep up.'
Pullman's Magical Fantasy Becomes A National Treasure © Copyright David Smith, Arts and Media Correspondent - Guardian, UK. Sunday January 4, 2004 All Rights Reserved.
How To Frighten The Children.
From The Economist Print Edition.
(3) Dominic Cooper who plays Will and Anna Maxwell Martin who plays Lyra who are on the same bench in a different world.
Photograph credit © Copyright Ivan Kyncl 2003.
The National Theatre's staging of His Dark Materials will be the season's delight.
When the curtain rises on His Dark Materials, the terrible choices facing our two heroes have already been made. Lyra, the feral child, and her good friend Will meet on a park bench at midnight on midsummer's eve, immured forever behind the gossamer walls of their two worlds. They cannot kiss, or even touch. "Even though you're further away from me than the furthest star," says Will. "You're here. Right here. On the same bench. In a different world."
Sir Nicholas Hytner knew as soon as he read His Dark Materials that Philip Pullman's highly imaginative recreation of 'Paradise Lost' was made for the stage. Love sacrificed, choosing right over wrong, how we become who we are; these are the themes underpinning the story. Never mind getting lost in the dark forest, one wrong step here and it's eternal lobotomy or seeing your soul sucked out by a spectre.
Pictured above is Sir Nicholas Hytner.
By placing the end of the books the park bench encounter right at the very beginning, Sir Nicholas deals cleverly with the sequencing and adds another dimension to a tale that many people see as just a piece of science fiction. The story's great arc how Lyra and Will come to recognise their love only to give it up to save mankind is told in flashbacks: the revelation of the existence of other worlds ("I spread my wings", says Will, "and I brush ten million other worlds, and they know nothing of it") begins in Lyra's world, the other Oxford, before passing on to Will's Oxford.
In between, we travel to Cittagazze, the world where children are safe but adults are in mortal danger, and meet the witches' flying goose. We learn of the importance of the dust that comes from other worlds is it good or is it evil? Of the witch clans of the Arctic, the knife that cuts openings between the worlds, and of the kingdom of the Panserbørne, the animals who shelter Lyra and who are ruled by the magnificent armoured bear Iorek Byrnison, played so poignantly by Danny Sapani.
We learn of the importance of the "daemons" or animal like souls that accompany the inhabitants of Lyra's world, of the identity of Lyra's real parents, Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter, and of the ultimate challenge Lord Asriel's plot to overthrow the church, or Authority (with its priestly figures in Jesuit purple and its headquarters cleverly based in Calvin's Geneva) in order to free mankind of its terrible grip.
The director has made excellent use of the technical possibilities offered by Nicholas Wright's script. The "daemons" wired lizards, birds, snakes and monkeys, covered in floating organza and lit from inside are intriguing interlocutors for the main characters. They move lightly about the stage and, in speaking, articulate their owners' every thought.
The seldom seen subterranean monster—the revolving drum set deep into the Olivier stage also comes into its own here. The drum turns as the players move on and off-stage, but it is in the centrepiece, rising and falling to reveal the myriad new worlds, that it really comes to life. The vile, secret experiments and the intrigues that go on in the Oxford college rooms are all staged low down; the witch queen's flight and Lyra's race across the Arctic, borne by the bear king dressed in Japanese warrior robes, are set high up on the central drum of the stage.
(4) Patricia Hodge as Mrs Coulter.
Photograph credit © Copyright Ivan Kyncl 2003.
Straddling the whole performance, though, both physically and emotionally, are three of the actors. Patricia Hodge, as Mrs Coulter, is as beastly in khaki safari-wear as she is beguiling in full-length fox. As her former lover, the ever-impelled Lord Asriel, Timothy Dalton draws as much inspiration from Sir Ranulph Fiennes as he does from his earlier incarnation as James Bond. No rock is too high, no world too distant as Mr Dalton leaps the giant stage in a leggy one-two-three.
In the end, it is Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyra who really carries the six-hour epic. Abandoned by both parents, raised by guardians who can only take her part of the way, Lyra strikes her own road towards her destiny. Do not be taken in by her pigtails and her bandy legs, here is a heroine as intelligent as she is wild, a heroine anyone would follow to a new world.
His Dark Materials, Parts I and II, is at the Royal National Theatre, London, from January 3rd-March 20th.
How To Frighten The Children (His Dark Materials) © Copyright The Economist Print Edition December 18th 2003. All Rights Reserved.
His Dark Materials - Review.
By Baz Bamigboye Daily Mail 26th Dec 2003.
(5) Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyra, with the Armoured Bears.
Photograph credit © Copyright Ivan Kyncl 2003.
At the end of a six-hour marathon performance, Anna Maxwell Martin, two years out of drama school, led the mammoth company of His Dark Materials on to the Olivier stage to receive thunderous applause from a bewitched audience.
The actress plays the teenage no-nonsense heroine Lyra Belacqua in the two-part stage version of His Dark Materials, which was adapted by Nicholas Wright and staged by Nicholas Hytner.
Dominic Cooper, with matinee-idol good looks, plays Will Parry, who shares, part of Lyra's journey. They are both searching for missing fathers, lost in other worlds.
Hytner's direction combines 21st-century theatrical magic from set designer Giles Cadle, puppet master Michael Curry and costume designer Jon Morrell to make a magnificant theatrical spectacle that's personal drama and tingling thriller. It was fitting that the army of special-effects experts took a bow at evening's end.
I saw a preview on Saturday (the first time the two-part production was performed on the same day) and sure, there are some technical kinks and small matters of staging and performance to be sorted out before the official opening on January 3. But, as they say in theatreland, that's what previews are for.
All the characters from this parallel world have a 'daemon' and here Curry comes into his own. The puppets are breath-taking and some are controlled by agile actors dressed head to foot in black.
The leading actors include Patricia Hodge (so glamorous in a floor- length mink), Timothy Dalton, John Carlisle Niamh Cusack and Russell Tovey, and they're all great.
Maggie Smith, whose son Chris Larkin plays the shaman opari, led the cheers along with Richard E. Grant, Ben Okri, Adrian Lester, Alex Jennings, Zoe Wanamaker, Phyllida Lloyd, and film and stage director John Madden.
Madden may have joined the 1st of those being asked to consider directing a movie version or New Line film company. Tom Stoppard's draft screen- play of book one In Philip Pullman's trilogy, has already been sent to Sam Mendes and Peter Weir for them to consider.
His Dark Materials - Review © Copyright Baz Bamigboye Daily Mail 26th December 2003. All Rights Reserved.
I would like to thank Margaret in London for sending the above review to me.
Daily Telegraph.
Andrew Marr - 7 January 2004.
How wonderful to be present as a great new British myth is being born. The sensational staging and excellent cut-down version of the novels has been widely reviewed; but here, at the basic level, is a story that will endure for generations, just as Defoe has.
The controversy over its anti-clerical theme will die away: it is a story about good and evil, courage and friendship, corruption and power, with a traditional underpinning of morality.
There are modern themes, from global pollution, to evolution by natural selection, but there is also a Miltonic inferno and the Oxford of Gerard Manley Hopkins. It cannot move on to the West End, because no other theatre is equipped to show it; I hope the National can be persuaded to let it run and run, instead.
Financial Times.
Alastair Macaulay - 5 January 2004.
The production - the hottest ticket in town long before the press day - is a lavish demonstration of what the National's Olivier Theatre can do.
And those daemons: here they are beautifully mobile, seemingly animated, puppets, carried and moved by black-clad figures who also, like ventriloquists, speak their words.This device proves engrossingly theatrical. And you fall more in love with it as the play proceeds.
The daemons of Serafina Pekkala (a wonderfully winged snow goose) and Lord Asriel (a pacing snow-leopard) are particularly beautiful, and Lyra's adored Pantalaimon has eyes that glow like sparks.
The way we first see the river-boatman of the dead is superlative: his boat slowly descends, circling, and we are gripped as we start to realise what it is.
These witches are a real success – part-Amazon, part-Valkyrie.
Timothy Dalton brings a thrilling surge of noble energy to Lord Asriel's every episode; Niamh Cusack makes Serafina Pekkala inspiringly lyrical.
Samuel Barnett, as Pantalaimon, is heart-catching (and often very charmingly accomplished). There came a moment - when Lyra is separated from her daemon - when I felt a kinaesthetic pang throughout my body.
Independent on Sunday.
Madeleine North - 11 January 2004.
Hytner never slackens the pace and his actors are captivating. Anna Maxwell Martin, whose performance much of the show's success depends on, proves as bolshy and impetuous a Lyra as anyone could hope for. Dominic Cooper's Will is similarly persuasive. Their scenes of burgeoning affection for one another are unsentimental and touching.
Patricia Hodge perfectly captures Mrs Coulter's malevolent love...while Timothy Dalton's gruff, no-nonsense Lord Asriel is a rugged breath of fresh air.
Danny Sapani invests his role [Iorek Byrnison] with so much grisly gravitas, you soon forget he's of normal stature.
John Carlisle has Lord Boreal’s unctuous ways down to a tee and the hideous cliff-ghasts and harpies should put the frighteners up a few young "uns."
Htytner cannot hope to please everyone. But watching two impressionable young things go into battle against good and evil and cast off the yoke of adult superstition hits a lot of the right buttons. Hytner, faced with a mammoth theatrical challenge, seems to have pulled it off.
The unstageable – on stage at last.
Mail on Sunday.
Georgina Brown - 11 January 2004.
Nicholas Wright has risen to the challenge, occasionally with brilliance. For the most part his knife has been subtle, his eyeglass keen, and he's remained true to the spirit of the original.
Nicholas Hytner's admirably vivid staging puts the Olivier's revolving stage through its paces, swivelling superbly up and down...
The real triumph of the piece is the puppeteering which moves beyond literary illustration into a wholly theatrical realm. Puppet designer Michael Curry brings the same astonishing imagination he brought to the Lion King. The armoured bears, their heads held at the end of their arms, are mighty and magical.
There are some breathtaking images, with the appearance of a beautiful snow-goose with silken wings, the daemon of a Lapland witch; the reflection of the sunset on Arctic snow; and some truly moving ones too: the ashen, hopeless Land Of The Dead is marvellously imagined and Lyra’s meeting with her dead self has a real potency.
Anna Maxwell Martin is outstanding as Lyra – solemn, determined, exceptionally brave. Patricia Hodge is a glamorous Mrs Coulter, a Cruella de Vil swathed in mink; best is Timothy Dalton as Lord Asriel, a seriously satanic baddie. He is of course, part James Bond, never out of his depth. But he is a much purer adventurer, covering the ground in bounding energetic strides, a fearless, rugged Ranulph Fiennes type. Until he kills, and his heartless ruthlessness is revealed.
Metro.
Claire Allfree - 6 January 2004.
Much of the ambition in Nick Hytner's robust production is channelled into visual effect, with an awesome, hi-tech revolving stage and a seemingly infinite number of sets.
The smaller details and more simple stagings enchant the most: the ethereal, animated puppet daemons; the imperial, white masked bears; the fabulous descent of the boatman onto a dark stage.
Anna Maxwell Martin is a perfect Lyra: stroppy, sensitive and utterly compelling, with her growing intimacy with Dominic Cooper's Will thick with adolescent wonder.
The final half in which Lyra and Will visit the underworld (powerfully denoted with dry ice, a huge mirror and a dozen grey children) is unforgettable; rich with theatrical magic and almost unbearably moving.
Sunday Times.
Robert Hewison - 11 January 2004.
Nick Hytner's impressively energetic and imaginative production.
In many ways, Nicholas Wright's adaptation improves on Pullman's wandering narrative, while Hytner and his designer, Giles Cadle, use the Olivier's revolving stage, with its rising and falling drum, to make fast and smooth transitions between the myriad locations the story demands. They boldly quicken and compress the long journey that 12-year-old Lyra makes towards self-consciousness and womanhood.
Beginning after the story's conclusion, he establishes a narrative device that allows for switches and elisions, but we know the direction we are taking.
The device also allows us to accept that young adults - Anna Maxwell Martin and Dominic Cooper - are playing characters reflecting on their younger selves.
Ably supported by Cooper, Maxwell Martin superbly sustains almost the entire weight of this drama, yet it is easy to believe she is a bolshie kid on the verge of puberty. The same approach produces some remarkable, childlike performances from the 30-strong cast, notably Russell Tovey as Lyra’s accidental victim, her friend Roger.
Niamh Cusack - in Wright's adaptation, a stand-in bearer of the mystic-dust-detecting amber spyglass - makes a fine Irish valkyrie.
In Lyra's world, a parodic version of old academic Oxford, people are accompanied by their daemons, their souls externalised in animal form, beautifully realised here by Michael Curry's puppets, animated by black-clad actors.
Dalton is well cast, giving us a touch of Henry V as he rallies his army of men, witches, angels and bears against the church.
Jon Morrell's excellent costumes effectively suggest a sinister Calvinist papacy crossed with the CIA.
Will and Lyra do, however, triumph over death. Bearing the guilt of her friend Roger's murder, Lyra goes to the world of the dead - skilfully evoked by smoke and mirrors - and sets them free.
Having disposed of death, Pullman's inverted creation myth supplies a moving conclusion. In a reversal of the fall, Lyra and Will must be in love to make their worlds whole again. Implicitly, they must come into the sexual consciousness that the Christian religion has mistaken for sin, for Pullman believes that conscious choice is the foundation of Asriel's intended "republic of heaven". Childish innocence will give way to adult experience. Yet, though in love, to live, Lyra and Will must stay in their different worlds, and by subtle use of the revolving stage, their worlds slide apart. It is a modern ending to a modern story. Pullman believes that telling stories will set you free. Hytner and his team have liberated this one.
His Dark Materials Rises Above The Stage.
Toronto Star, Robert Crew - 30th January 2004.
The hottest ticket in London Town? That would be for a sprawling, spectacular six hours of theatre based on a set of fantasy novels about parallel universes, armoured polar bears, flying witches and a corrupt and vicious Church.
After much trial and tribulation — the opening was delayed for a week or so by technical problems — Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials has finally hit the stage of the Olivier Theatre.
It has quickly become the talk of the town.
The run, which continues until March 20, is sold out. Lines begin at the box office as early as 7 a.m. for day seats and return tickets, while £6 ($14), standing-room-only tickets are eagerly snapped up.
What a switchback ride it is. Fans of the trilogy (of which I am one) will note that playwright Nicholas Wright, who took on the formidable task of adapting the novels to the stage, has excised one or two characters and breeds of creatures, along with parts of the story.
Some things have been changed but rest assured, little of substance has been lost.
The story centres on two young people as they set out on separate quests, join forces and journey to adulthood and the creation of a new world order; unlike the books, the epic is presented as an extended flashback, so the actors playing the roles of Lyra and Will are therefore older than the adolescents of the novels.
In Lyra's world, everyone is accompanied by a personal daemon — animals that represent the human soul — and the opening sequences take us to the Arctic where a fiendish plot is underway to separate children from their daemons.
It is all tied up with the mysterious "Dust" — actually the physical manifestation of conscious thought and love, the very stuff that makes us human — and Lyra wants to join her uncle who is striving to crack the mystery.
Will, meanwhile, is looking for his explorer father who has gone missing. And what follows is a titanic struggle between good and evil, dark and light, which takes us from the top of mountains to the depths and the home of the dead.
It is a fantasy epic complete with heroes and villains, theological satire and exposé, and a touching story of young lovers ultimately doomed to spend their days apart.
A heck of a lot of territory to cover, in more ways than one. And both parts of His Dark Materials are ferociously plot-driven, moving along at breakneck speed.
What makes this possible is modern technology; unlike so many of the mega-musicals, the high-tech fireworks serve well the Pullman books and the vision of director Nicholas Hytner. It is not bravura techno display for its own sake but a modern means to a simple end — that of storytelling.
The large drum-revolve at the centre of the Olivier stage can rise a storey and a half from the floor and can be divided into two, enabling the 100 or so scenes in the play to pile frenetically on top of one another. Video is also used to stunning effect.
Perhaps the most vivid image of all is that of the Boatman in the land of the dead, rowing slowly towards us out of the gloom. It's an unforgettable moment.
Small wonder that the backstage technicians are summoned on stage at the end of the second evening for their own curtain call.
Other solutions to the problems of staging this epic have been solved with simple, traditional elegance.
The daemons are puppets, often manipulated by actors on stage. Created by Michael Curry, the heads are built with mathematical precision and often have glowing eyes while the bodies are mostly suggested by wisps of flowing material.
They can be magical (like Lord Asriel's snow leopard), solidly dangerous (like Mrs. Coulter's menacing monkey) or cute and engaging (like Lyra's shape-shifting Pantalaimon).
The harpies are terrific, the armoured bears less so and the witches are slightly embarrassing.
While character, inevitably, takes second place to plot, both Anna Maxwell Martin's Lyra and Dominic Cooper's Will manage to convey grace and innocence under extreme pressure; their final scene is surprisingly moving.
As the multi-faceted Mrs. Coulter, Patricia Hodge radiates chilly glamour and danger, yet gives a sense of the vulnerability and yearning that lies underneath that shell. Timothy Dalton is dashing and decisive as Lord Asriel but hasn't been given much more to explore.
It's hard to disagree with The Observer's Susannah Clapp who said: "His Dark Materials changes shape as often as one of Pullman's daemons; it flutters, sometimes flounders and occasionally flies high. It's imperfect but it's important."
Important enough for Hytner to promise that the show will return at the end of the year.
And don't be too surprised if it has a life long after that.
