The Gruffalo
By Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Produced in Australia and New Zealand by Christine Dunstan Productions
Adaptation by Tall Stories Theatre Company (Olivia Jacobs & Toby Mitchell, artistic directors)
Directed by Olivia Jacobs
Music & lyrics by Jon Fiber & Olivia Jacobs
Designer Isla Shaw
Bruce Mason Centre Theatre
Saturday 13 August 2011
Reviewed for http://www.theatreview.org.nz
Any child born in the 21st century to a literate family will have come across the books of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the two most popular being ‘The Gruffalo’ and its sequel ‘The Gruffalo’s Child.’
Our son who attended this performance of ‘The Gruffalo’ has had this book in his top ten since he was two years old. Such is his love of the story, and of Scheffler’s illustrations, that he took the time to create a Gruffalo suit with appropriate makeup to wear to this performance, a performance he afterwards described as’ awesome’.
He is, after all, a Gruffalo of very few words.
‘The Gruffalo’ has won a number of accolades for children’s literature and has sold over ten million copies worldwide as well as being presented in performance form on Broadway and in the West End.
In 2009 a short animated film of ‘The Gruffalo’ was shown by the BBC featuring Robbie Coltrane as the hairy beast, Helena Bonham Carter as the narrator, Tom Wilkinson as the Fox and John Hurt as the Owl. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010 and for an Academy Award in 2011.
For parents wanting further exposure to Donaldson and Scheffler’s work I can personally recommend ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’, ‘Room on the Broom’, ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’ and ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’, all of which are family favourites.
The Bruce Mason Centre Theatre is a complex venue for spoken word performance. When seated in the first 3rd of the auditorium the experience is often quite different from that received further back. What could be described as an intimate and personal experience for those nearer the stage can become distant and disconnected for those further back. The Sky City Theatre, at 800 or so seats, is disquietingly similar. Both are great for live music and dance but less so for the spoken word.
It’s fair to say that ‘The Gruffalo’ is essentially an intimate show and, when performed on the expansive stage at the Bruce Mason, only the central area downstage was required.
The attractive, milk-chocolate set consisted of five cut out trees, a central copse, two tall stumps (suitable for hiding behind), one short one, and a stage floor that was speckled by an eye-catching leafy green gobo.
The audience – a full house of largely under-eights who clearly knew the story – entered to a pre-recorded twitter of delicate bird tweats and with a level of anticipation and child-like preshow volume that were at an equally high level.
The dilemma for anyone staging such a well-known story, particularly one with such evocative illustrations, is to fulfil the expectations of an audience deeply entrenched in the lyricism of the text and the extraordinary imagery of the book. Either that or they must enable us to suspend our disbelief and simply accept what is being presented for what it is.
From the opening stanza it was clear that the numerous characters in Donaldson and Scheffler’s original were to be performed by only three actors and, since one was to play the Mouse (Crystal Hegedis) and another the Gruffalo (Nat Jobe), it was immediately clear that the third actor (Stephen Anderson) was in for a very busy afternoon.
It was also clear from the outset that there was to be little or no attempt to replicate Scheffler’s images which is not to say that the costumes were any less effective as each of the characters was clearly delineated and effectively performed.
Unlike Donaldson’s text this stage version contained songs and these were, in the main, well performed with ‘The Woodland Airforce Club’ being particularly effective while the Gruffalo’s solo ‘What Gruffalo’s Do’ was somewhat less so. It wasn’t that the song was less well performed simply that it was a less effective composition especially considering it encapsulated the title character’s first entrance.
The script for ‘The Gruffalo’ cleverly interlocks Donaldson’s well known rhyming couplets – cheerfully chanted in unison by the entire audience – with a more everyday text supplied by additional script writers Olivia Jacobs and Toby Mitchell and some effective improvisation by the actors. The audience loved the interaction between them, the performers and the story and engaged fully, and gleefully, with this process.
Crystal Hegedis played the mouse throughout and was suitably close in interpretation to Donaldson’s story. The youngsters in the audience found Hegedis’ performance both enchanting and accessible and related to her right from the get go. Her easy going charm and considerable craft held the storyline together and allowed for suitable eccentricity from the other cast members.
Nat Jobe narrated much of the first half of the story and presented a suitably benign and largely genial Gruffalo in the latter. His forays into the audience as the Gruffalo were very much appreciated.
Stephen Anderson was everyone else.
Anderson had the satisfaction of creating the quirk in the show – that’s assuming that the Mouse and the Gruffalo weren’t quirky enough (they were). The Fox, the Owl and the Snake as well as a considerable amount of narrative were left in Anderson’s capable hands and his ability to delineate difference and embody character was a delight. His Biggles-like RAF owl and matador snake – complete with maracas, piratical head scarf and delicious golden matador’s suit of lights – were clever creations, effective to such a degree that our son asked, at the curtain call, where the other actors were.
Performing for audiences of largely preschool age can be hazardous because when they cease to engage they always do something else which usually involves considerable amounts of noise, frequent visits to the bathroom and loud requests to go home. It is to the credit of this show that the youngsters remained focused on the experience for virtually the full 50 minutes and clapped happily at the end.
There was a general air of satisfaction expressed by the young members of the audience and since this was a non traditional adult audience most seemed happy with what they had experienced.
Creating much loved children’s stories, especially those with powerful and recognisable imagery is always difficulty, and while this experience was very enjoyable, it is fair to say that, for those who have a choice between seeing the show and buying the book, I would have to recommend the latter.
No disrespect to the show which contained skilled acting and polished performances but the production was, at times, somewhat formulaic and, while it satisfied the majority of the young audience including my Gruffalo –clad eight year old, I was left yearning for more of the eccentric enchantment that Donaldson and Scheffler had created in the pages of their book and a little less of the ‘three shows a day, it’s Saturday so it must be Auckland’ feeling I was left with.
In conclusion it has to be said, again, that the target audience went away happy so my middle aged, adult niggle might well be disregarded as some Scrooge-like, pre-Christmas mean spiritedness and, if you take your kids, I have little doubt they’ll have a blast.
It is, after all, The Gruffalo!
dykiegirl 