BASED ON the best-selling children’s picture book written and illustrated by Judith Kerr, The Tiger Who Came To Tea has been made into a captivating children’s theatre show which comes to the Town Hall next week as part of an extensive tour of Ireland and Britain.
Produced by the same company behind last year’s hit staging of The Gruffalo, The Tiger Who Came To Tea has been beautifully adapted by David Wood OBE. With Wood’s songs and lyrics putting the magic into the story, children aged three and up will love the stripy big cat who comes to tea with Sophie and her mum.
On the 40th anniversary of the book’s publication, this is the first time this much-loved teatime tale has ever been staged.
The story commences when the doorbell rings just as young Sophie and her mum are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? They certainly don’t expect to see a big, stripy tiger…who is terribly polite! He asks so nicely if he can have tea with Sophie and her mummy that the latter agrees.
So the tiger comes into the kitchen and sits down at the table but he is a very hungry tiger and a very thirsty one too, as we soon find out! This quirky tale of a tea-guzzling tiger makes for delightful family show; packed with oodles of magic, sing-a-long songs, and clumsy chaos!
The role of Sophie is taken by actress Abbey Norman and ahead of the show’s Galway visit she took some time out to talk about the production, beginning with an account of her own career-path into children’s theatre.
“I’ve been acting for about 10 years now,” she states. “I started out doing classical roles in plays by the likes of Shaw, Wilde, and so on, but then I slowly gravitated to children’s theatre; I’m only four foot 10 so I can play roles like the little girl Sophie in The Tiger or do animals like the Mouse in The Gruffalo.”
The stage adaptation has been written and directed by David Wood, long acclaimed as the laureate of children’s theatre. His many stage credits include adaptations of several Roald Dahl stories and Babe The Sheep Pig while his screenplays include Swallows and Amazons.
How has he tackled The Tiger Who Came To Tea, and transformed it from a book that can be read in just a few minutes into an hour-long play?
“David has done an amazing job with the story,” Abbey enthuses. “He has added songs and music and bits of audience participation all of which help fill out the action and make it work on stage.
“The Tiger himself doesn’t speak, he has to convey everything entirely through movement so Alan Atkins, who plays the Tiger, spent a lot of time working on that. When Judith Kerr, who wrote the book, was asked about doing it onstage she said she would only go along with the idea if David Wood was doing the adaptation.
“I think she’s been very happy with how he’s done it. The audience reactions so far has been brilliant as well; and because the book’s 40 years old we also get a great reaction from the parents in the audience because so many of them read it themselves when they were children.”
Having started her career in the ‘grown up’ classics, Abbey is now more than happy to be working in children’s theatre, mainly due to the quality of the audience response.
“I love working in kids’ theatre,” she affirms. “You get more of an immediate reaction; they tell you straight away what they think of a show so it really keeps you on your toes. Kids at a show like this find it so amazing and exciting and it’s always lovely to be in something that can have that kind of effect.”
The Tiger Who Came to Tea is at the Town Hall from Tuesday January 27 to Saturday 31. The Tuesday performance is at 11.45am; on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday there are two performances, at 10am and 11.45am. On Saturday there are also two performances, at 11.30am and 2pm.
Tickets are €15/€12.50, schools are €10 per pupil, teachers free. Running time is 55 minutes (with no interval ) and the show is suitable for children aged three and above. For tickets contact the Town Hall (091-569777 ).
