The Wind in the Willows

Hidden away down a side street in Pateley Bridge is a small theatre simply brimming with talent.The Pateley Bridge Dramatic society certainly know how to put on a show.

Director Nevin Ward had adapted this well-known children's story and added to it a good variety of songs and music with lots of choruses for us to sing along with. Along with fellow musician Steve Rouse he accompanied these songs and as well as playing they managed to perform cameo roles in the production.

The four main characters, lovable Mole (Keith Burton), sensible Rat (Michael Thorne), grumpy Badger (Jerry Harvey) and the very vain Toad (Ben Derrick) had captured all the mannerisms of their animal characters and obviously enjoyed working together. I must mention costumes at this point as they had been very cleverly thought out with great attention to detail.

The four ladies involved, Carol Bailey, Heather Appleton, Rachel Joynson and Brenna Smith had a multitude of roles to play and they did this with great skill.  Well done ladies with all the accents especially the South African one which you all managed superby. Once again the costumes were excellent, simple but beautifully made.

Scenes were depicted by showing photographs on a screen and Newby Hall had been used to represent Toad Hall. This made scene changes nice and simple and left room for the magnificent vehicles that had been constructed. We had boats, a caravan, a train and a car that seated five people and they were all built in great detail but goodness knows how they found space for them all backstage.

The lighting and sound were well timed and added greatly to the overall effect. I noticed one small child disappearing under his seat when we were in the Dark Woods.

The Narrator (Christine Ward) took us through the story with the help of a giant story book and the script was easy to follow.

What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon watching such carefully pepared entertainment. I left the theatre feeling good and the sight of some beautifully  knitted Wind in the Willows characters in the theatre window just added a final touch.

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