The Scarecrows’ Wedding
01 August 2019
Leicester Square Theatre
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
We’re making the most of the summer holidays, so yesterday we went to see The Scarecrow’s Wedding at the Leicester Square theatre, where it plays until the first of September.
The story is based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and though I usually love these books, this particular story isn’t one of my favourites. The female scarecrow character is portrayed as a damsel in distress, there are consent issues, and smoking features in this children’s book, so overall there are a lot of problems with the source material, hence I expected the same for the play.
With a cute stage design that features a hillside, blue sky backdrop and farmhouse charm scattered throughout the front of the stage, it’s a very well done staging of the story. A plethora of instruments accompany catchy songs that dive a little deeper than the story itself. Somewhat masking the problematic parts of the original book, this energetic musical performance absolutely captured the children and had them laughing out loud at some of the silly, fast paced antics on stage.
It’s a thought out, well done play for children to enjoy, sometimes a little too on the chaotic side but with many lovely songs and fun audience participation moments. I think they’ve done the best they could with the original story and presented an entertaining show for children that seemed well received by everyone in the audience.