Review – Wind In The Willows by La Boite Theatre Company

We were invited to attend Wind in The Willows at the La-boite Theatre Company. I took along my two children 5 and 7. Let me start by saying the play was great! Luke Carroll was great!

I recommend the play, but don’t take young kids. From 8+ onwards depending on their maturity would be ok, and they would need to know the story of Wind in the Willows to truly grasp the character changes. (My daughter read the book a few days before in preparation). I feel the play was misrepresented and here is why :

I had seen a few different advertisements around for the show. Obviously the write-ups were taken from the media release. Most had the image shown above of Luke Carroll. He did not wear this costume, he did not have whiskers on, he was not as cute as a mouse (as in the image). He was just a man in dungarees and changed in and out of a coat to transform between characters (hard for my usually concept grasping 5 year old to grasp this time).

Several write-ups (including this one at Creative Drinks and havenmagazine.com) had written that the costumes were magical and the sets meticulous. The costumes were creative and imaginative: at one point a towel on Luke Carroll’s head transforms him into a judge. Yes, very creative but really would kids get it? By the noise of children chattering and fidgeting around us I am guessing no. It clearly states it was aimed for 4-12 year old’s or anyone who enjoys playing in boats. Um there was only a few sections where the boat was used. I can see some boat loving kids rocking up for a “boat” themed play and being hugely disappointed and we mum’s trying to console them afterwards. Oh the pressures of being a mum, do they have any idea what false promises can do to children.

I personally found the acting very fast as it was hard to follow the lines at times and I am worried how children could follow. There were some fun bits where the audience participated including becoming a sock puppet at a party and making the chugging sounds of a train. These were towards the end which was good as the children who were getting restless and bored or distracted were brought back in again even if they had no idea what they were doing it for.

Check out this review by Rachel and this one too by Absolutetheatre which covers more of the actual story line.

Read These Next

If you’ve been around here long, you know that I’m in a perpetual battle with my stash. I feel like I haven’t bought yarn in years unless I needed it for a specific project. I knit fairly a lot, and crochet some, too, but it feels like my stash never gets any smaller.

It’s not just the unused balls of yarn that are a problem. In fact, maybe a bigger issue is all the odd balls and leftover bits that seem to pile up without any effort. Even though I love scrappy projects (and knit a whole sweater dress with scraps earlier this year) it still feels like a never-ending quest to use up all the little bits.

So I’m always on the lookout for good patterns that are made to use of the extra bits of yarn. If they are super easy, too, that’s so much the better.

So it is with the Lalu Scarf by Sheena Stone. This any yarn, any gauge pattern is designed to use up whatever scraps you have on hand (assuming they’re mostly the same weight or can be held double to make the same weight).

It’s a tube scarf worked in the round, and she specifically notes that she works it outside in, so the back of the scarf is on the outside as you knit. The needle tips are on the part of the circle farthest away from you as you knit.

It also has an attached I-cord edging, which sounds really time consuming but does give the edges a nice, finished look.

The way the colors are changed as you knit you don’t really need a lot of each color. It would probably be good if you had at least enough of a color to complete one round, but you can change colors more often than every round if you need to because you’re using all your tiny bits.

Grab the free pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Sheena Stone.]

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