The Gruffalo - Reviewed by John Smythe, 2010

Unlike most of the young audience, I was not very familiar with Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book before I saw this show but that doesn’t matter.

This Tall Stories (Britain) adaptation of their wonderfully wrought tale comes across clearly, if a little impersonally, in a simply-staged, radio-mic’d, whistle-stop tour of large North Island venues, courtesy Australia’s Christine Dunstan Productions.

To say Mouse is out to lunch, in the deep dark wood, is not to say she can’t look after herself when she finds more than nuts on her quest. Sure she thinks it might be fun to search for a monster too, but that question of lunch – of who might be having whom for lunch – keeps coming up.  

First a Fox, characterised as a cockney wide-boy, invites Mouse to lunch in his underground house. To get out of it diplomatically, she pretends she has a prior engagement with … with … “The Gruffalo!” shouts her audience. She is then obliged to describe some of its characteristics to back up her fanciful story.

Likewise when a raffish Owl, then a Spanish (or is he Mexican?) Rattle Snake, fancies Mouse for lunch … And so the myth of the Gruffalo grows. But there’s no such thing as a Gruffalo, don’t you know … Except when there is. And the Gruffalo is hungry too …

Crystal Hegedis expresses a full range of states in Mouse, from timid to adventurous, innocent to inventive, fearful to happy and full of beans (well, nuts). All children – and adults too – will identify.

Stephen Anderson plays all the predators with comedic relish and shares the narration with Simon van der Stap, who then manifests the Gruffalo. They work like clockwork as a team and pitch the predators and Gruffalo with exactly the right degree of scariness to delight the young audience.

The odd theatrical in-joke (e.g. “He’s a horror to work with”) has been interpolated, presumably to keep jaded adults amused. Sometimes the level of child-chatter in the audience may lead us to think interest is flagging but far from it: it’s the story they’re talking about, and their responses at key moments prove they are fully engaged.

As directed by Olivia Jacobs, this highly imaginative adventure story ticks all the boxes for children growing a sense of themselves in a bigger world that promises much and is sometimes scary. Those who already know the story will love it; those who don’t will want to know more. 

click here for dates and venue

Adaption by Tall Stories Theatre Company:
Olivia Jacobs & Toby Mitchell, artistic directors
from the award winning picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Directed by Olivia Jacobs
Music & lyrics by Jon Fiber & Olivia Jacobs
Christine Dunstan Productions