The daemons were done with puppets manipulated by black-clad individuals who did the voices. The puppets were good, although not what I was expecting. The armoured bears were very well done too - bearlike with just a bear head mounted on the actor's arm and a claw in the other. The angels - Balthamos and Baruch - made me laugh, but they do in the book too.
Obviously, since the books are long, the plot had to be compressed. The plays were even less subtle than the books and missed out all of Mary's part and the mulefa *sniff*.
The harpies were good, and the land of the dead scenes I liked :)
The very end was nicely managed but the scene in the battle where the Authority was killed was rather odd. In the book, he gets left by accident when his carriers get attacked. Lyra and Will free him and no-one except the reader realises what they've done. In the play, the casket is put down by the bearers who then exit stage left - there is a battle going on but it doesn't affect them - and after Will does his stuff, Serafina Pekkala appears and loudly tells them exactly what they've done. Also, Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel didn't fight the Metatron ('cos there wasn't one, which is fair enough) but just kind of wandered off down the void - as far as I could tell because they felt like it, which was a bit weird ^^;;.
I did like it though, and would recommend it, but only to those who've read the books - they'd probably be a bit confusing otherwise.
The acting was, for the most part, excellent. Some of the sets are rather elaborate for theatre, yet thankfully they are mostly still sparse enough to leave a lot to the imagination. There were a few wonderful touches that could *only* have been done that way in a theatrical performance. Look out for the scene in the waiting room before the land of the dead.. - MoonShadow
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HisDarkMaterials/Plays