The Wind in The Willows

The Wind in the Willows is a well-known children’s book, written by Kenneth Grahame, and adapted as a musical by Julian Fellowes, George Stiles, and Anthony Drew. The story tells the tale of the bumptious Toad of Toad Hall being rescued from his own follies by the wise Ratty, the gentle courageous Mole, and the irascible Badger, with a whole forest full of other animals along the way.

The show opened with a beautiful, sweet opening solo of “Spring” sung by Portia shortly followed by the rest of the ensemble. This was a beautiful opening number and the audience were enamoured by the fantastic costumes which captured the essence of each of the characters. Patti Stott does a fantastic job on the costumes every time and this company would without her creative vision and expertise.

It is great to see that community theatre is not just surviving but indeed thriving with new member joining the company recently and, as always, the heavy involvement of the children in as much of the production as possible to ensure the future of the company is safeguarded.

The set for this show was fairly simple in design which enabled the scenes to be changed quickly and easily. The set consisted mostly of desks on wheels which span to reveal different locations or become a motor vehicle. The primary focus of the scenery was the large projection screen at the back of the stage with bright vivid images projected on to this. The cartoon nature of these images suited this show well and added a great deal to the overall visuals of the production. The moving images on screen worked effectively during “the open road”

Accents formed a key feature throughout and a huge effort was made by all of the cast to master some of these trickier accents. A huge well done must go however to Otter as the Geordie accent is perhaps one of the hardest to master.

Mr Toad had excellent characterisation and all the energy required for this role. Mole was well cast and was heartfelt, warm and endearing in her portrayal of this character. The relationship between Mole and Ratty was good and the two characters had very nice interactions throughout. Other notable performances were seen by Badger, Mrs Otter and Chief Weasel. One of my favourite moments was the Hedgehogs song which provided some lovely music. Combined with good comic timing as the hedgehogs attempted to cross the road.

A small band was ably led by Rosemary Fox consisting of percussion and two keyboards using a variety of orchestral sounds. Rosemary was also the Musical Director for the production and the cast were all well-rehearsed for their songs and there were some lovely moments of harmony throughout and most notably in the swallow song.

Congratulations on a lovely show.

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