The Gruffalo and his child were sweet personalities, and the performers were very good. The songs were typical rhymes/musical-tunes, but enjoyable and catchy enough without driving us mad - we listened to the CD we bought after the show about 50 times all the way home.
In the songs, the approach to the Gruffalo or the Big Bad Mouse's kiliing habits (killing prey) is not sensationalised, but it is accounted for graphically. It's matter-of-fact and told in part of the story (the Big Bad Mouse will snap the Gruffalo's neck, squash the life out of her, suffocate her between sheets of cheese etc in the song 'Big Bad Mouse'). The music has a touch of English-Folkseyness to it - maybe some Irish Folksey-ness too.
Here's a bit more on what to expect: I'd recommend it, just don't be too much of a purist and expect exact reproduction of the book. There's time to see it in the UK still, or in Australia.
We have been watching a lot of Gruffalo leading up to the show, to help Jaan cope with his first theatre trip (an hour is a long time, he enjoyed the show for about 40 minutes, twisting about minimally. The last bit he was harder to manage, but there were no tears, just extreme fidgeting). Here are our best finds:
A piece of the excellent Gruffalo cartoon, currently being shown on Nick Jr during the bank holidays.
Here's Julia Donaldson, and she sings the Gruffalo Song which Jaan now loves, and even Iain sings.
This is the theatre company who put on the show, Tall Tales.
Finally, a LOVELY video of a mummy and her kid's puppet-show production of Gruffalo.
It was a big deal for me to brave the outdoors and to go to another county for this outing! I am glad I had Iain and Jaan with me. Our seats were very good, which helped too (Thank you Mother in Law). I have to say, at the theatre I was not the mummy who looked most like the Gruffalo's lost 'Mrs Gruffalo'. I am definitely not right for the role of Mummy Teletubby anymore either. My shape is a-changing. Bootcamp has been part of my life for 2 months now, and I'm looking forward to the next block. I have been talking to Jaan about the Gruffalo a lot in the build-up months, and he likes me to pretend I'm Gruffalo and wander about Zombie-like while he squeals and zooms about. He came up with this game, and being 'Gruffalo' just by jutting my jaw out (bottom teeth visible = terrible tusks) and making my 'paws' prominent is brilliant for our imaginations. I reckon I have bootcamp to thank for that game too, I am freer in my body, able to move more, really move more. For a long time I was in a bad place, but as a strong samurai princess, I was brave enough to sign up for bootcamp, and even if I was not quite sure I believed what my friends say about me (they think I'm awesome) - I was prepared to go along any way (I could hardly feel worse about myself for trying, right?). With nothing to lose and everything to gain, I'm so glad that 2 months down the line I have a waist again. Ok, not exactly svelte yet .. .. but I am definitely able to PRETEND to be a Gruffalo, while looking nothing like one really.
The costumes in the show are equally inspired and imaginative - the snake wears a spangly jacket, the owl and the fox are amusing stereotypical characters, with a few props in their costumes to indicate eccentric intellectual/mad scientist and Cockney wheeler dealer respectively.
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