The Wind in the Willows Review by Riley Barn

In the middle of the forest Mole finds herself lost. Eventually her bad vision leads her to the riverbank where she meets Mr Rat who takes her on a boat ride. After some time on the water; the rich, impulsive and extravagant Mr Toad ruins the tranquillity with a brand new speedboat which he bragged about to Mr Rat. Eventually Ratty and Mole meet Miss Badger who convinces them to go to Toad Hall and try to talk some sense into Toad about responsibility! Sadly some… less fortunate things happen which all come at the hand of Toad and because of which they find themselves on a quest to try and reclaim Toad Hall. The manipulative Weasel supposedly controls a yellow monster known as ‘The Slurpex’.

A family comedy and lesson learning story about friendship and responsibility the Wind In The Willows performed by the Youth Theatre is a lovely sight to behold! Full of laughs for everyone and some interesting plays on the original story lead to a very entertaining event. I am amazed by the way they twisted the classic Wind In The Willows and made some references to real world money schemes used in very clever ways. There are breaks every so often where the cast aside from the main characters get their time to shine with some of my favourite moments emulating from some small cutoff scenes. The opportunity for younger children to have themselves heard is just phenomenal and makes a sense of community within the cast. They seem to give personalities to characters who otherwise would have had no main need in the story but they made it a good way to communicate more of a different show of the classic “Goons” in pop culture.

This production focused on developing the story through communication of characters and wiseley placed scene cuts which makes everything seem faster while in the grand scheme of things it's quite a long show. I must say the show always seemed interesting and there was never a time I was disinterested or bored because they kept going through more interesting things my way. It was also very clever with the costume as you can spend a bunch of money on animal costumes. They instead went for a more simple design and made the characters have a slightly more human look but their costumes still reflected their animal. For example, Mole was wearing a grey and blue attire which reflected a moles natural colour but they also made her seem very shy but friendly which was a nice addition. Badger also kept to a black and white colour scheme which not only made her look like a badger but also like an authority figure which she emulates throughout the show. 

Overall, I think it was well made and a nice spin on the classic tale of The Wind In The Willows. A good show for all the family!