Giant

by Mark Rosenblatt

'I wanted to put you bang in the picture. Apprise you of the difficulties. Because, in case you hadn't noticed, he's a human fucking boobytrap. And now, guess what, surprise surprise, boom!'

A world-famous children's author under threat. A battle of wills in the wake of scandal. And a chance to make amends…

It's the summer of 1983, The Witches is about to hit the shelves and Roald Dahl is making last-minute edits. But the outcry at his recent, explicitly antisemitic article won't die down. Across a single afternoon at his family home, and rocked by an unexpectedly explosive confrontation, Dahl is forced to make a public apology or risk his name and reputation.

Inspired by real events, Mark Rosenblatt's debut play Giant offers a nuanced portrait of a fiendishly charismatic icon – and explores with dark humour the difference between considered opinion and dangerous rhetoric.

The play was first performed to great acclaim at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2024, directed by Nicholas Hytner with a cast including John Lithgow as Dahl. It transferred to the West End the following year, and won the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play. Mark Rosenblatt won Best Creative West End Debut at the Stage Debut Awards in 2025.

Genres: Plays, Drama

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 8, 2025

Reviews

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my play of 2024 - an immaculate production of Rosenblatt's play, led with a titanic performance by John Lithgow, all the scarier for how utterly without strain it felt. The play so skilful, moving between Roald Dahl at his most sensitive and his most ferocious, surrounded by people with... varying intentions and motivations as to his best interests. Rosenblatt makes him so human even as he is utterly vile.

[Cary S · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very talkly, “idea” play. I’m sure it’s a stellar performance by John Lithgow, but all of the other characters were stock on the page, with limited to no theatricality. Here’s a point/counterpoint on a frankly exhausting and exhausted debate, with no progress or original conclusions. Instead of Dahl, it could have been a Columbia college student and a reform rabbi debating the self same issues. Maybe seeing is believing on this one….

[Joel Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A knotty story about a very complicated man, this is an important piece that addresses Dahl's antisemitism as well as showing his support for Palestine. Obviously perhaps this would be impossible considering the basis on real life, but I would have liked there to have been another character within the play who could give legitimacy to his support of Palestine while still opposing his antisemitism, as all of the characters are either 'neutral' or pro-Israel.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Rosenblatt's astonishing debut play could not be more relevant. It imagines a 1983 confrontation between beloved, though decidedly cantankerous, children's author Roald Dahl, and representatives of both his British and US publishers, over the writer's controversial endorsement of a book (God Cried) condemning Israel's actions in the 1982 Lebanon war.

On the one hand, Dahl is absolutely correct in seeing Israel's actions as tantamount to genocide (sound familiar?) - but on the other, he spouts some outrageously inflammatory, sweeping and definitely antisemitic remarks about the Jewish race in general (all of which stem from Roald's actual words on record). It makes for riveting, if uncomfortable drama. Wish I could have seen the recent premiere production at the Royal Court, featuring bravura performances from John Lithgow (who bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Dahl) and Romola Garai.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/27/th...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/202...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/thea...

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved Giant. It’s such a striking, thought-provoking play that takes on the complicated legacy of Roald Dahl with a lot of courage, but also a lot of nuance. It doesn’t shy away from his very real and troubling anti-Semitism, but it also doesn’t turn him into a one-dimensional villain. Instead, it leans into the idea that people are complicated, even the ones we admire.

What really worked for me was how it set up Dahl’s beloved status in literature alongside this darker side of his personality. For so many of us, he represents imagination, childhood, and a certain kind of mischievous magic. That’s what makes the play land so hard. It disrupts that image and forces you to sit with the discomfort of holding both truths at once.

I also thought the portrayal of Dahl was incredibly well done. He isn’t written as purely evil, but as a fully human figure, someone capable of charm and warmth alongside beliefs that are genuinely upsetting. That complexity felt honest. And when the gloves come off, it’s honestly a bit shocking, not because it’s out of nowhere, but because you’ve come to understand him just enough for it to really hit.

In the end, I think Giant works because it doesn’t try to resolve everything neatly. It trusts the audience to wrestle with the tension. It left me thinking a lot about how we reconcile the work we love with the people behind it, and that’s not an easy question. It’s an unsettling experience in the best way, and absolutely worth reading.

[JB · Rating 2 out of 5]

We could’ve done things! We could’ve explored what it means to become a banally evil adult and the irony of Dahl doing so. Instead, we get a trite “is he or isn’t he antisemitic”, “all anti-Zionism are antisemetic” piece.

Also the staging of this is incurably weird. Characters stay in convos far too long and there aren’t great choices for the actors to make so they just stand still.

[JPS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and timely. I could hear John Lithgow as I read the play. I think Mark Rosenblatt has masterfully used the story of Raold Dahl to examine today's conflicting views of Israel and the rise of antisemitism.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really a masterclass in writing a monster while making him horribly human at the same time.

I can't believe the writer started this in 2018
I can't believe this is the writer's first play.

[Clare McHugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw the play, and bought the script in the lobby. A very powerful play, devastating about insidious anti-Semitism

[O · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece. Saw it in London. Painfully good.

[Tim Grimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful. An interesting and unsettling portrait of the famous writer

[Georgia Darwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

jealous of anyone who saw this performed 🙌

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An uncomfortable but compelling look at Roald Dahl and a moment in his life. Simple staging, with a focus on the dialogue.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good play. Through most of it, Roald walks the line of nuance between criticizing the Israeli government and its actions and actual antisemitism. But by the end, he tilts over the edge into full hatred of Jews. Not surprisingly, it's apparent that the reason is that he's never actually known any Jewish people on a personal, human level.