THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. To 21 January.
Keswick
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
by Kenneth Grahame adapted by Alan Bennett
Theatre By The Lake To 21 January 2006
4-7 Jan 2pm; 7pm, 9-10 Jan 7pm 11-12 Jan 1.30pm; 7pm 13 Jan 7pm, 14 Jan 2pm; 7pm, 16-17 Jan 7pm’ 18-19 Jan 1.30pm; 7pm 20 Jan 7pm; 21 Jan 2pm & 7pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS: 017687 74411
www.theatrebythelake.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 December
A large-scale, colourful production that tests the theatre’s limits.
Alan Bennett’s fine adaptation makes clear how Kenneth Grahame’s Edwardian classic reinvents British society in animal terms, while also incorporating some unlikely quotations (one, from the end of Ibsen’s Ghosts, seen at Keswick in summer 2004, particularly cheeky) and a lovely Christmas first-act end with creatures on the hillside singing Harold Darke’s ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’.
It’s a large-scale piece. Keswick’s revolve works heroically, revealing cutaway homes for Badger and Ratty, while designer Martin Johns cunningly creates distant grandeur with a small perspective cut-out of Toad’s mansion (looking like every rich Victorian industrialist’s gothic idea of domestic heaven, dependent on a multiplicity of servants) in the hilltop distance. But mobile transport is asking a lot on this size of stage; car and cart pass muster, but boat and railway-engine show the limitations.
Still, it’s picturesque, while performances create a sense of human society, from the bumptious arrivee Toad through philosophical Badger, fussy Rat and nervously bourgeois Mole. These characters can look down with condescension, fear or fascination on mice (OK), Stoat’s (a bit much) to Wild Wood urchins and yobbos in Ferrets, and lowest of the fearful low, Weasels.
The central performances make these characters clear, though there might not be the last ounce of bounce in John Flitcroft’s Toad, slightly diminishing any chance of contrast after his prison sentence (like Pickwick Papers, another tale long linked to Christmas,Willow offsets democratic jollity with its fearful opposite, incarceration) to make the point Toad learns nothing. Around him are strong performances from Eric Coudrill’s nervily grateful Mole, John Webb’s busily self-certain Rat and Peter Rylands’ assured codger of a Badger.
Bennett combines the adventure and sense of social strains in Grahame’s story, seen in Toad’s fads, corruption in a judicial system within a class society (Toad almost gets off lightly when a Judge sees the possibility of an invite to Toad Towers), and the middle-class fear of the uneducated mob in their wild wood slum, to enter which is to risk life and limb as naïve Mole discovers. In Ian Forrest’s production, it all comes over colourfully at Keswick for Christmas.
Mole: Eric Coudrill
Rabbit Robert/Fred Ferret/Policeman/Gypsy: Nick Dutton
Toad: John Flitcroft
Otter/Albert the Horse/Stoat Gerald/Motorist Rupert: Simon Grover
Rabbit Rose/Fiona Ferret/Motorist Monica/Gaoler’s Daughter/Bargewoman: Sarah Harvey
Chief Weasel: Eamonn O’ Dwyer
Badger: Peter Rylands
Hedgehog Harriet/Fox/Magistrate/Washerwoman: Loveday Smith
Rat: John Webb
Weasel Norman/Salesman/Train Driver: DanWexler
Portly/Weasel/Mouse Mark: Gregory Webzell/Thomas Chicken
Billy Hedgehog/Ferret/Mouse Martin: John Cowper/Adrian Duncan
Rabbit/Weasel/Mouse Maureen: Samantha Quail/Charlotte O’Hagan
Rabbit/Ferret/Mouse Margaret: Anna Broadbent/Harriet Forsyth
Squirrel/Ferret/Mouse Martha: Ellie Fanning/Rebecca Harrison
Squirrel/Stoat/Mouse Mary: Ellie Roberts/Isabella Eddington
Rabbit/stoat/Mouse Millie: Charlotte Strachan/Sophie Mawdsley
Tommy Hedgehog/Weasel/Mouse Melissa: Anna Robson/Lucie Graham
Director: Ian Forrest
Designer: Martin Johns
Lighting: Chris Ellis
Sound: Andy Bolton
Musical director: Richard Atkinson
Movement: Lorelei Lynn
Fight director: Kate Waters
2006-01-06 11:41:03