The Wind in The Willows

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Review by Elaine Chapman, an independent reviewer who reviews at https://theatreandartreviews.wordpress.com/

Read her full review of The Wind in The Willows here.

See the Hampshire Chronicle review of The Wind in The Willows here.

The cast and creative team at Blue Apple have a noble history of putting our own spin on tales which we all think we know well; we created extra scenes for The Tempest, threw a feminist light on Frankenstein, and we hope that our version of The Wind in the Willows has something new to say too.

This tale was distinctly the choice of the cast, and we decided that, given its natural setting, we’d try to say something of value about protecting that setting for future generations. To do this we’ve tinkered with the notion of who is the hero or villain in this story; playing fast and loose with some other characters – we think it’s a valuable retelling and hope you do too.

You won’t be able to see it from your seat in the theatre, but the past year has seen some significant changes at Blue Apple – we’re doing more activity with more people in more places across the county (including Southampton and Portsmouth) than ever before. For that I need to thank a dedicated team of staff and freelancers, as well as our supportive trustees. Our involvement in the UK-wide Transforming Leadership initiative has also meant that we have two paid trainees who (in the fields of governance and co-creation) are emerging into the sector as professionals.

We’re trying to spread the good news of Blue Apple to areas which we’ve not been able to work in before, to give more people the chance to be involved in the arts. We hope the benefits are clear to see on stage, but there are others too; benefits to social connection, confidence and to health and wellbeing. Perhaps over time, some of those new faces will join the regulars on stage – we look forward to watching them on their journey.

Richard Conlon, Writer / Director

Special thanks to guest voice artist Chris Packham.

Images below from rehearsal by Mike Hall

Blue Apple Theatre’s The Wind in The Willows was performed at Theatre Royal Winchester

Wednesday 26 July at 7.30pm

Wednesday 26 July at 1.30pm

Thursday 27 July at 7.30pm

Livestream webcast performance

Wednesday 26 July at 1.30pm

A subtitled recording of this will be made available on YouTube in due course: https://youtu.be/zFbJQ4Mb83g

Audience feedback was extremely positive with an average of 97% enjoyment and 98% quality scores in our feedback questionnaire responses. Here are some of the top words the audience used to describe the show.

Below are some audience comments sent in by email and text:

“We absolutely loved the show, the cast were all amazing. Well done to all xx” JM
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“I just thought I’d let you know how much I enjoyed the Blue Theatre performance the other night.  It was an amazing tour de force - very creative, and witty too, but with some thought-provoking messaging as well.”  JB

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"Can I ask that you pass on my congratulations to everyone involved – I was totally “blown away” by the performance! An exceptional showcase of the skills and abilities of the members, who were all totally engaged and obviously took great pride in their performances. Thoroughly enjoyable!"  SR

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“I just love coming to the shows… I thought this one was especially memorable - please do congratulate the whole cast and support team. Bravo!” CC

“Please accept my thanks for a great show last night at the Theatre Royal. My wife and I had a really very enjoyable evening in which were profoundly moved, wonderfully entertained and very impressed. We both found almost all aspects of the play excellent: Imaginative and very relevant script that made some important points. Really excellent acting and good stage craft. It all added up to a very professional performance. I would be very pleased if you could pass on my congratulations to the cast, the acting coaches and the production team. Really very impressive. A well-deserved standing ovation!” RG-S, Mayor of Winchester

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“Thank you for the opportunity of seeing the inspiring and wonderfully entertaining performance of Wind in the Willows.” JA, Eastleigh councillor

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“As the dust settles from the Weasels invading Toad Hall and a new calm appears in the Wild Wood it seemed a perfect time to say a big thank you for an absolutely brilliant production.  I may have been a ‘Toady Roady’ and seen all 3 shows but am so glad I did as it just kept getting better and better, and the set, especially the steam train/barge was amazing. 
As I have said before X has truly loved his first year as part of the company, though I think that’s almost the wrong word… it feels more like a community.  Every Monday he has filled the car journey home with excited tales of rehearsals and friends and chats and it is just wonderful to see how much other the performance opportunities Blue Apple has already given him. 
He has always taken part in performing but this is a whole new, wonderful experience.  From the sharing of ideas and helping to shape the production, to the empowerment of saying how much he wanted to be involved with part size, lines and the ability to say without worry ‘can you find some easier words’ making sure he really did their say them with confidence as part of the cast.  
Also the care to adapt costumes to ensure they were accessible was I can imagine not easy with so many varying requests, but just a bit of Velcro instead of buttons took away any anxiety he had and he has loved dressing up. Thank you all for all your support, time and enthusiasm.” K, a parent.

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“A huge congratulations to you and your team for such a brilliant show last evening. Our group from Winchester Go LD absolutely loved it. We appreciate how much work has to go into putting off such a fabulous performance - please pass on our thanks to all involved. The cast championed all the characters skilfully and the story telling was clever and charming. I'm still smiling at the transformation of some members to woodland creatures. Please pass on our thanks and congratulations to everyone - involved: your brilliant team, the cast, crew, volunteers and support.” BC 
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“What a wonderful show it was. It was definitely a show not to be missed!” Tim Selwood, founder of the Minstead Trust

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“Thank you so much for such a wonderful Wind in the Willows show, total masterpiece! Everyone I have spoken to has said how wonderful it was and we loved it. Thank you so much for all your hard work.” S, a parent.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all our funders and donors for their support, including: National Lottery Community Fund, Winchester City Council, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation, The Perivoli Foundation, The Cranbury Foundation, Howdens, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust, individual donors and for the generous in-kind support provided by the University of Winchester and the University of Southampton, who kindly host us as their artist in residence. We thank Winchester College for their ongoing volunteer relationship. Our thanks to Access All Areas whose support has enabled James Benfield to be involved in the creative process and enabled Anna Brisbane to contribute to the governance process.

We thank the Noel Coward Foundation for funding to enable free workshops exploring themes from the show.