WIND IN THE WILLOWS
based on the book by Kenneth Graham.
by Australian
Shakespeare Company
Botanical Gardens
Gate F, Birdwood Drive,
Reviewed by Kate Herbert around Dec 23, 1997
Did you know you can
do 'weasel workshops' over summer if you want to learn how to be a sneaky
creep?
As part of this season of Wind in the Willows, weasel
workshops are being run so that the newly trained children can be 'extra' baby
weasels for the evening shows. It keeps them off the streets.
Willows has become an annual event in the Botanical Gardens
and, each season, a new crop of actors launches its version of the well-loved
and well-worn characters. Toad (of Toad
Hall) is generally the most popular and Damien Richardson's Toad is no
exception.
Toad is delightfully narcissistic, cowardly and childish in
his obsessions with new fads such as canoeing and motoring. When he is arrested
for dangerous unlicensed driving the children holler, "Send him to
gaol!"
It is this frequent audience participation that makes what
is sometimes a thin production into a novel event. The children, wearing rabbit
badges, become honorary bunnies and are lead about by a very cool Rabbit (Matt
Hetherington) and a very musical and sleazy Weasel (Stephen Gates).
They hunt for Portly, the lost baby otter (Chris Hocking),
sing along with tunes, waggle their bunny ears, give advice to Mole (Anne
Maloney) and Badger (Nick Clark) and call out suggestions to save Toad Hall
from a massive Weasel incursion.
The musical elements are very successful. Two guitarists,
Ratty (Glenn Perry) and Weasel keep the songs coming thick and fast while Otter
(Nick Crawford-Smith) beats out rhythms and others sing harmonies.
This is almost a failsafe production for summer holiday
audiences but it has a few problems. Outdoor theatre wears out actors' voices
and many of the voices are already weakened with bellowing. The direction could
take the physical clowning and visual comedy further with more slapstick and
detailed business to fill some yawning gaps.
The location is as much a star as any character. Ratty
arrives by boat on the lake, Toad falls out of his canoe backwards, Weasel
perches in a tree, bunnies search for Portly under trees laden with rudely
awoken fruit bats. It is a gorgeous site for a family picnic, so take a rug and
champagne.
KATE HERBERT 3
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