The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel
Scheffler, adapted for stage by Tall Stories Theatre Company (UK).
Christine Dunstan Productions at Canberra Theatre July 20-23, 2011.
Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 20
The
costumes by Matthew Aberline for the Mouse (Crystal Hegedis), the
Gruffalo’s Child (Chandel Brandimarti), the Gruffalo, the Snake, the Owl
and the Fox (Stephen Anderson) in this musical version of The Gruffalo’s Child say a great deal to me about the business of adapting The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child for the stage. What is gained and what is lost?
I
began my quest because my resident Gruffalo expert, who will soon turn
six, was clearly disappointed that the Mouse’s nut ‘as big as a boulder’
did not appear on stage. Why not? I thought to myself.
Every
quest entails a series of adventures. First, the energy, professional
skills and discipline of the performers was exciting, as a good
adventure should be. Then those costumes – so much more colourful, and
just plain interesting than the pictures in the books. More about this
later. The tulgey wood landscape was an adventure in itself, again with
twisted emotional effects that were never in the books’ very ordinary
pine forests. And the sound track was as whimsical and fun as the
books, though the children in the audience, of course, would not have
recognised the musical references behind the songs.
Probably
most of the children wouldn’t have noticed the missing nut-boulder,
since they were obviously thoroughly engaged by the show. When I
wondered why my little expert had, I took my quest onto YouTube and
found a home-made video of a reading of The Gruffalo’s Child at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27TO94H3Fr8.
Then
I realised how the full moon shadow of the Mouse with her nut as big as
a boulder on her shoulder made her appear to the Gruffalo’s Child as
such a huge monster – even huger than her Gruffalo father – that it was
no wonder that the little Gruff forgot her stick and skidded home faster
than the Snake, the Owl and the Fox had scarpered from the fearful
Gruffalo that they had never even seen.
Though this bit
of the book was lost, it was Aberline’s costume for the Fox that
highlighted the gains. Each of the characters on stage were fully
developed – within a pantomime tradition – which for me made the stage
production greater than the sum of its book bits. The Fox as the
ultimate salesman, and the style of the music and song lyrics, suddenly
struck home. Here was Macheath from The Threepenny Opera, though
fortunately short of the full Mack the Knife. Even the music reminded
me of Kurt Weill and the clipped phrasing of Bertolt Brecht.
So
my quest completed successfully, I could praise both the Tall Stories
Theatre Company for the script and the Dunstan team for its
interpretation – though in the Australian context I have some doubts
about educating our children with the European concerns about fear of
the ‘deep dark wood’. Our bush, admittedly, has snakes worth fearing,
but no imaginary gruffalos – just wombats, koalas, wallabies, and,
unfortunately, plagues of mice and foxes which are feral But it was
nice to see on stage what a good father the Gruffalo was, and how
bravely Little Gruff went out to find her truth.
© Frank McKone, Canberra
