A mouse took a walk through the deep, dark wood…

So begins the Gruffalo. A book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. We were given the story-book when Audrey was really small and (the now well thumbed) copy has become a favourite of ours ever since.

I think the premise of the story is based on a Chinese fable . The book was published in the late 90s and has since grown to be a bit of a children’s phenomenon with toys, DVDs and spin-off books ('The Gruffalo’s Child' amongst many others). Nevertheless, being English it all feels a bit less cynical than Dora (born from the empire of Murdoch).

Now the stage play of the Gruffalo was in town!

Audrey and I once again went along to a theatre performance, our second theatrical outing in a month (this time to the small but trendy ‘Street Theatre’ on the West of Canberra). The Gruffalo was nearly an hour long (amazingly adapted from a book which takes about 5 minutes to read!), but all the children were engrossed throughout. It was a nice play as it was really well sung, acted and there was plenty in it for the adults as well which would have passed over children’s heads.

There was no hard sell of merchandise which was nice and no interval either in which to push plastic toys via pester power. Audrey enjoyed herself and we’ve been enacting parts of it since we got home. A big thumbs up from us both for the Gruffalo.

…A mouse found a nut, and the nut was good.