'Matilda: The Musical' encourages children to be leaders of change

June 22nd, 2022

"Matlida: The Musical" is on stage at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre through June 26. (Robert Mitchel Owenby Photography)

Matilda is a witty, intelligent young girl with psychokinetic powers. The clever character was created by the popular children’s author Roald Dahl, and her story was later adapted as a musical.

The show was a massive hit in London and on Broadway, and now the Atlanta Lyric Theatre presents a production of “Matilda: The Musical” playing through June 26. Director Bethany Irby and actress Marissa Bondurant, who plays Matilda, joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about their experience bringing this beloved tale to the stage.

Interview highlights follow below.

A message to uplift kids who struggle in harmful homes or schools:

“The story of her finding her voice, finding her ability to stand up against the bully, is a throughline throughout the show,” Irby said. “Her first song says, ‘Even though you’re little, you can do a lot / Never let being little stop you.’ And she realizes that she can take a stand against these tough people in her life, and it begins in her home, and then it spirals out into her school, where her principal is really tough. Throughout the play, her teacher is following a similar track. They’re running parallel throughout the show, finding their voices, and you see that in an adult and in a child and together. They support each other and help each other against the bad guys.”

“[Matilda] has this confidence, and Marissa plays it beautifully,” Irby said. “One thing we worked on — it doesn’t come from a place of anger or sass, as some kids could play this part, but it comes from the fact that Matilda is a truth-teller. She sees truth, and she speaks up for truth. And she says throughout the show, ‘That’s not right,’ and she sees the things that aren’t right and speaks about them until she’s able to change them.”

Getting in character and dialing up the theatrics:

“I love the theater because I love getting into the character and learning how the character is just like you in some ways,” said Bondurant. “I think both me and Matilda stand up for what’s right, and we don’t let other people take advantage of us.”

“The oppressors of the story are larger than life,” said Irby. “Traditionally, Miss Trunchbull is played by a man, and to have a man play this character of the scary principal helps to add to just how scary this must have been for this child to be up against this antagonist of the story. And we really push the cartoon value of all the antagonist adults, to make them larger-than-life, to make it seem like how a child remembers their past is bigger than it actually was.”

The lasting resonance of Roald Dahl’s most popular classic:

“It’s still an applicable tale. Throughout the process, I’ve thought of all the children today who are leading protests and using their social media platforms to go for change in the world, and this idea that children are people who have ideas and voices they can use to change the world even at a young age is very ‘in’ right now, which I love, and that was Roald Dahl’s message in 1988,” Irby reflected.

“Matilda: The Musical” is on stage through June 26 at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre of the Atlanta Lyric. Tickets and more information are available at hatlantalyrictheatre.com/show/matilda.