I brought Noah to watch The Gruffalo last Friday, because he recently became a huge Gruffalo fan, and it was truly a wonderful experience for both of us.
It wasn’t Noah’s first theatre experience, so I knew that he would generally be okay to sit through the 55 minute production. I brought a small container of biscuits for him, just in case he needed a snack, but he was so enthralled by the characters on stage that he didn’t ask for them. I bought the category B tickets, but chose the single file seats on the first level, as I wanted to be closer to the stage. I figured that if he didn’t want to sit on his own, he could just sit on my lap anyway. To my surprise, he sat through the first half an hour or so on his own, and sat on my lap for the rest of the show. Not bad, considering he only had a ten minute nap that day!
Noah has been having a tough time settling in to school, so this was meant as a treat for him, especially since we’ve been reading The Gruffalo at least once a day. He was really excited about it when I told him about the show, and would light up each time we mentioned it. He asked to take a photo with the banner when we arrived at SOTA, and spent a long time checking out all the Gruffalo merchandise at the booth strategically positioned outside the theatre. There was also a photo booth, and the staff actually emailed us the photo almost immediately after it was taken! Pretty impressive, I must say.
Before the show
C asked me before the show, “How are they going to make a 55 minute show out of such a short book?” I didn’t know either, but in the end, I thought the production was well-paced, and filled with hilarious interpretations of the different characters. There was a lot of singing and dancing, and Noah was bopping along to the music at some points as well. He was quite eager to see the Gruffalo, and kept asking me, “Where’s the Gruffalo?” while we were waiting for the show to begin.
Waiting for the Gruffalo to make its appearance
I thought the three person cast did an excellent job of bringing the story to life, and I loved how the audience participated enthusiastically when Mouse asked everyone to roar like the Gruffalo. It was also really clever that the Owl was characterised as a rather rigid pilot, while the Snake was a hilarious narcissist! Noah liked it when the Gruffalo ran off the stage in a bid to hide from the Mouse, and was so disappointed when the show ended. He refused to leave the theatre, and kept asking me to bring him to the stage, so that he could look for the Gruffalo. In the end, I managed to convince him to leave by telling him that the Gruffalo might be outside (yes, I lied).
C bought him a small Gruffalo’s Child, because they ran out of the Gruffalo by the time we went back to the booth, and he spent the evening cuddling it. I can’t wait to read The Gruffalo’s Child with him!
Noah and the Gruffalo’s Child
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