James and the Giant Peach tells the tale of a young British boy who climbs into a magical stone fruit with larger-than-life bug friends and travels the Atlantic to visit New York—as one does.
Based on the 1961 children’s novel by Roald Dahl, the stage adaptation by David Wood serves as Community Players Theatre’s 102nd season opener, beginning with a pay-what-you-may preview and running through Sept. 8.
Ashleigh Rae-Lynn takes back the director’s chair for the first time since CPT’s popular production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2022. She took a pause while attending graduate school in theater at Illinois State University; with that done, she jumped at the chance to bring James and the Giant Peach to the CPT stage.
“I remember my Aunt Mary showing it to me when I was two or three years old—shout out to Aunt Mary on that one,” Rae-Lynn said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “Much like a lot of us theater kids, James is a dreamer.”
Tragedy strikes, killing both of James’ parents, and placing him in the custody of two terrible aunts, Spiker and Sponge.
“He’s forced into this living situation that he doesn’t want to be in,” Rae-Lynn said. “Through dreams and miracles, he’s able to go to New York as see all the tall buildings he so aspired to see."
Rae-Lynn said the old adage “children should be seen and not heard” need not apply in James’ world; indeed, children bravely finding their voices is a theme coursing through all of Dahl’s catalog.
Charlie Bucket defends his worthiness to Willy Wonka at the end of his chocolate factory tour. Matilda gives Miss Trunchbull a what for, using magic to stand up to her and other bullies. And James shows Spiker and Sponge the door, building a beautiful chosen bug family and fulfilling his dreams.
“He’s responsible for the survival and the dreams of these bugs,” Rae-Lynn said. “Through his knowledge and his resourceful thinking, and his survival with Aunt Spiker and Sponge, he’s found a way to entertain himself. Now, he’s actually getting to live it all out in miraculous, larger-than-life ways.”
Solving for how to get a flying peach on the Community Players stage requires a certain degree of ingenuity for the creative team, too. Rae-Lynn, set designer Ben Fetters and props designer Jennifer Bethmann manufacture the trans-Atlantic voyage through a giant peach and giant book built on stage, with James (Cory Gaff) and the Grasshopper (Jeffrey Burke) narrating the tale as a series of flashbacks.
“I do not like scene changes,” Rae-Lynn said. “They really frustrate me. So I try to make everything as seamless as possible.”
The year leans more heavily on family-friendly shows than prior seasons, partly because they wanted to involve more children. James and the Giant Peach is a rare play with a children’s cast, with players ranging in age from 10 to 54—some in their first theater production ever. Thirteen people are acting in Community Players for the first time.
Another big motivator behind a season of palate cleansers enjoying broad appeal is their ongoing capital campaign aimed at improving accessibility and comfort for patrons.
But Roald Dahl isn’t for everyone. His family has publicly apologized for blatant antisemitic comments. And just last year, the publisher holding the rights to Dahl’s books made hundreds of revisions removing offensive stereotypes and language many people consider problematic. The backlash was hard and swift, resulting in Puffin releasing a new collection of unedited books as Dahl wrote them.
“Times have changed,” Rae-Lynn said. “Everyone has a right to chose what they feel their children should be exposed to. While we may not be everything for everyone, we can be something for everybody.”
James and the Giant Peach opens Thursday, Aug. 29 with a pay-what-you-may preview. Shows run Aug. 30 – Sept. 8 at Community Players Theatre, 201 Robinhood Lane, Bloomington. Tickets are $17 at 309-663-2121 and communityplayers.org.
