The Wild Wood a 100 years on?
Yesterday at a matinee of The Wind in the Willows Wilton’s, at the Wilton’s Musical Hall
When Grahame wrote his children’s novel (1908 at the height of the Edwardian summer), the great middle class fear was of the proletariat criminal/ anarchist/ bolshevist class arising and stealing their privilege and comfort, and the initial loss of Toad Hall to the weasels and stoats exactly captures this fear.
But the proletariat no longer represent middle class objects of fear, so today’s Chief Weasel is, in this production, a multi-billionaire property and banking magnate, the weasels and stoats his accounting and banking henchmen.
And Badger a grizzled IS Class warrior, still supporting CND and all that is right (actually of course Left) in the world.
Set less in the countryside and more in the Leigh Valley, our Moles and Water Rats and Otters and of course Badgers are also eco-warriors fighting the despoliation of the urban ‘countryside’. With original music played and sung by the cast and an exuberant performance by Toad (Darrell Brockis) – still the unrepentant wastrel of the books – political reversals apart the characters (and story) is still recognizably Graham’s. Even Pan's Intervention is maintained.
A very convincing Christmas Show – the children in the audience loved it. The audience channelled the continuing spirit of the adjacent Cable Street.