His Dark Materials... If you haven't already read Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman then go buy them now (In America they are usually mishelved in the fantasy elves and dwarves wankery section and the first book has the simpler title 'The Golden Compass'). You won't be sorry. Every time I meet someone who has read the books I urge them to listen to the unabridged audio versions of the trilogy as well. Narrated by Pullman himself and featuring a full cast of very talented voice actors they are unfuckable with. The death of one character in The Subtle Knife reduced me to a tearful mess and I haven't heard an audio production to date that has topped this one. Up until last night I had figured that the audio version was going to be the best realisation of the story of Lyra that we could expect until New Line brings the movie version out. If done properly the three movies should destroy that Lord of the Rings crap and no matter how pleasing the upcoming Narnia movies look this is the trilogy to get excited about (Christmas 2006 for the first part). So I sat down in the National Theatre last night in truth expecting to be underwhelmed, but I was completely and utterly won over. The production isn't perfect and I think squeezing three novels into two plays is a mistake but fucking hell that was a fun night. We saw witches declare war on The Church, armoured bears tear each other apart, secret arctic experiments carried out on kidnapped children and a managerie of daemons come alive on stage as zeppelins and balloons flew overhead. This evening we go back for the second part but it will be hard to top the spectacle of last night. In the last twelve months we saw a lot of great technically dazzling theatre and after the success of Japanese troupes (Hamlet and The Elephant Vanishes) it was fantastic to see such a very British production go all out for success. Everything hinges on the performance of Lyra but Elaine Symons makes the whole thing look effortless. It's her interaction with the puppets that initially pulls you into her world and holds you there happily for the next three hours plus. The audience was a nice mix of adults and children, some rows were entirely filled with uniformed kids and their crumpled teachers but as soon as the lights dimmed and the live musicians began to set the scene we were all captivated. The set designers seemed to use every trick in the book and invent a few new ones along the way to bring to life the different worlds and help keep the action moving at a sometimes breakneck pace. The story was abridged slightly but on the whole a lot that I thought would have been impossible to achieve live on stage was not only included but performed with gutso. A huge cheer erupted during the intermission as Serafina Pekkala descended from the Arctic sky but it was nothing compared to the audiences reaction to the play's cliffhanging finale. It used every inch of the stage space to cut to each significant character in turn as the tension built perfectly to the point of anguish as you realise that you've come to the end. The only thing that I can attempt to criticise is the decision not to stage all three books separately. Given an extra three hours some of the major sequences wouldn't have seemed quite so rushed and there would have been less need for exposition. Still, His Dark Materials is a remarkable accomplishment. There are already ugly rumours surrounding how the religious elements of the upcoming movie versions will be unpalateable for an American audience, but if New Line attempts to cut around them it'll end in disaster. That said, I couldn't help thinking as I watched one character call about for the destruction of The Church that this play would never be produced in the States. If you think God-botherers get annoyed over Harry Potter wait until you see them choke on their communion wafers over gay angels, a concentration camp style afterlife, a fascist Church filled with perverts and murderers and a senile God who desperately needs putting out of his misery... Mike is writing to Bob Mould