Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Watermill Theatre, Bagnor

Picture: Pamela Raith

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang continues at the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor until 13 September 2026.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The pressure is on when you’re a small theatre in the sleepy hamlet of Bagnor and have been named Theatre of the Year at The Stage Awards 2026. The amazing Watermill has continued to set benchmarks for regional theatre with its record-breaking shows and Paul Hart’s production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is no exception.

Following on from previous summers when Lord of the Rings, Jesus Christ Superstar and Barnum all utilised the outside space and employed creative ingenuity to stage some of the more demanding aspects of each show, the challenge had been set high. Needless to say, any doubts have been well and truly (no pun intended…) quashed as the resourcefulness of the company and creative team bring all the nostalgia of the 1968 film to life with clever originality and expert handling from the cast (choreography by Anjali Mehra).

During Act I, the audience is led outside to the funfair where Caractacus Potts joins in with the Morris dancers for ‘Me Ol’ Bamboo’ and sells his hair-cutting invention to pay for the scrap metal car that his children love so much. This enables stage management to reset back inside the auditorium for the scene where we get to witness the phantasmagorical car that floats and flies. Clever and expert ‘car-ography’ from the cast bring Chitty to life, enlisting evocative childhood memories and movie nostalgia.

Christian Edwards is perfectly cast as Caractacus Potts. He is empathetic, genuine and charismatic as the single dad and eccentric inventor with Mark Curry as the delightful Grandpa Potts (a highlight is when the Potts’ outhouse flies off to Vulgaria with Grandpa hanging from the door, but no, there shall be no spoilers here!).

Lydia Louise, in her professional debut, exercises more lighthearted superiority rather than pomposity as Truly Scrumptious while Alexander Zane (Goran) and Sam Pay (Boris) are hilarious as the two Vulgarian spies. The other formidable double act comes from Mairi Ikegami and Samuel Morgan-Grahame who capture the self-indulgent foolishness of Baroness and Baron Bomburst while scratching the surface of something more sinister, fleetingly touching on parallels to current day politics.

Susannah van den Berg is the menacing Child-catcher with most cast members providing musical accompaniment in the Watermill’s unique actor-musician style (credit to musical supervisor and orchestrator Stuart Morley) on a brilliant set (thanks to Katie Lias) and assisted by delightful ‘junkyard’ puppets (designed by Marc Parrett). This all culminates in the most creative storytelling of this classic masterpiece.

Julie Watterston