Writer: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Music: Joe Stilgoe
Lyrics: Joe Stilgoe
Adaptors: David Greig and Jackie Crichton
Director: Katie Beard
This vibrant adaptation of the popular picture book is a delight from start to finish and will captivate young audience members and charm their families. The bright costumes and versatile set evoke the original illustrations while putting a unique spin on each design, making it easy to recognise everything in the production. It’s obvious that a lot of care has been taken with small details, from the prop work and puppetry to including a real smoking chimney on the cottage set.
The narrator, Mama Mouse (Lottie Mae O’Kill), is a warm but somewhat fussy figure reminiscent of Mary Poppins, with a singing voice like that of Galinda the Good. She struggles to get her unruly children (James Stirling, Rachel Bird and Dyfrig Morris) to behave themselves and remember their manners, so she decides to settle them down with a story that will reinforce her message. Cue the tale of The Baddies: a witch (Bird), a ghost (Stirling) and a troll (Morris) who set out to menace a brave young shepherd girl (Yuki Sutton) who moves into the valley where they live. Mama Mouse challenges them to get the girl’s blue-spotted handkerchief to prove which of them is the worst baddy of all, leading to a series of amusing villainous shenanigans that are ultimately proved useless in the face of courage and kindness.
It’s a simple tale told well, with plenty of musical numbers and slapstick comedy to keep the audience entertained. Everyone is encouraged to dance along to one song in the middle of the show, providing an ideal movement break for fidgety youngsters. Stirling, Bird and Morris make a great comic trio with all the bickering and cartoonish fighting you might expect from a set of ne’er-do-wells, and Stirling’s turn as the witch’s cat offers a pleasant change of pace in the form of a charmingly camp old-fashioned solo musical number.
The show concludes with a wholesome resolution for everyone – via a song, of course, which had audience members of all ages clapping and waving along as the story finished on a high. The morals of the story are very simple (be polite and kind) but that’s ideal for the target age the performance is aiming for. If you have a child aged three to six to entertain, this show offers a fantastic means of doing so.
Runs until 20 October 2024 | Image: Jess Shurte
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