Wind in the Willows

This famous book by Kenneth Graham has been adapted for the stage many times so I wondered why yet one more version was to ‘hit the stage’.  It soon became clear why Matt Isham’s boyhood love for the story of the adventures of Mr Toad had inspired another.  Picking out the most famous and well-known parts of the story and adding some amusing and imaginative touches this new script provided a fun evening.

With the audience on three sides multiple levels were created to keep thing visually interesting depicting the river bank, Toad Hall etc.  Minimal items of scenery necessary to represent other articles of props or areas were cleverly added which, in the main kept the scene changes quick and fairly smooth.

Using the hall in this way, however, created a huge problem for the lighting team. Inevitably some areas ended up too dark or actors all but disappeared into the overspill.  Darren Seekings’ design was good in theory but came unstuck a bit in practice.  Full marks though for Simon Munford who’s myriad sound effects were excellent and all absolutely spot on cue. 

Costuming was clever using as it did more or less every day clothes of suitable hues adding just ears, tails etc. to create the impression of the relevant animal. Master Toad was the most colourful character which was exactly right - loved his frog blanket.

The principal members of the cast were self-assured and we saw good performances from them all. Olly Hockin in particular, who was superb as Master Toad, wonderfully loud, blustery and silly (as Toad should be) great energy of movement too; Jason Smart was suitably nervous and somewhat amusing as Mole and Lucinda Moore as Ratty was first-rate. Harry Ashby as Badger bought gasps from the audience when he kicked in the door of Toad Hall.  Never seen Badger played as a ‘bully-boy’ before but it appeared to work.  

We were also treated to a neat cameo performance by Olivia Balzano as Bethany the jailbreak mouse. This was an exceptionally confident performance for one so young. I am sure we will see more of her in future productions.

Of course, plum roles have to be the Stoats and Weasels and didn’t they have some fun.  These supernumeraries, who looked to me to be from about 8 year of age upwards, were well rehearsed, raucous and energetic.  An excellent performance came from Billy Pridgeon who certainly made his mark as the Weasel Captain (great make-up too) keeping the stoats and weasels  nicely “out of control”.  They must have had fun rehearsing the Weasel celebration party which ended in the trashing of the auditorium with unseemly enthusiasm. 

Writer/Director Matt Isham and his team provided us with an entertaining production. It didn’t matter if things appeared a bit disjointed at times - it is the nature of the story being as it is episodic; all the best bits were in there enhanced with some original and fun touches.   

Congratulations Swavesey RADSOC for supporting and presenting this new piece of theatre which proved just the right choice for a light summer’s evening.

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