Giant explores Dahl's controversial views in a theatre play that our critic says transcends the hype.
Transferring to the West End in a blaze of awards glory, Giant is that rare and beautiful thing: a play that doesn't just live up to the hype, it transcends it. First produced at the Royal Court Theatre, it's a small piece - set in one room, with a cast of five - but its impact is monumental.
In the debut play by director Mark Rosenblatt, Olivier Award-winning John Lithgow plays Roald Dahl. Well, baring a striking physical resemblance to the 6ft 6ins author, he doesn't play Dahl, he becomes him.
Lithgow is grumpily mercurial, barking "End of memo!" when he's done with a conversation, delighting over sorbets and growling over syntax. He can be funny, asking someone who says she grew up on his work "You ate my books?" and saying of a crank caller "Genuinely violent people don't call ahead".
But he's terrifying too - a hulking giant of a man ("I don't fit in cottages") who is big, yes, but only friendly when he feels like it.
For dramatic purposes, Rosenblatt has concocted a meeting between the author, his UK publisher Tom Maschler (a real character) and US exec Jessie Stone (invented) to discuss a seemingly antisemitic book review Dahl has written that could hurt sales of his forthcoming book The Witches. Circled by Dahl's mistress and his staff, they want him to apologise, he won't, and a battle of words ensues.
Are his views about Israel's bombing of Lebanon justified, as he insists they are, or are they steeped in racism?
Everyone in the room has a stance, with the American exec (who is Jewish herself) especially angered as things starts civilly but descend into a shouting match.
It makes for riveting, intelligent theatre in which Rosenblatt offers no excuses for Dahl's views but is fascinated by why he holds them and also why he is so stubbornly determined to exclaim them so loudly, career be damned.
Bob Crowley's design of a mid-renovation house in disarray serves as a metaphor for Dahl's precarious position with his publishers, but there are no scene changes to distract from the words.
Director Nicholas Hytner is wonderful with actors and what a wonderful cast he has here - with Elliot Levey wry and rattled as Maschler and Aya Cash (replacing Romola Garai from the Royal Court run) exploding in anger as Stone.
And Lithgow's performance is one for the ages. Like Rosenblatt, he doesn't shy away from Dahl's unpleasantries but digs deep into them - and never more so in a moment towards the end where he calls up a journalist not to make amends for his incendiary words but to further compound them.
Top-drawer acting doesn't get any better than this and neither does theatre.
Giant is at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 2 August, 2025.
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