Shakespeare Santa Cruz ready to unleash its holiday show
Children’s literature can be a surprisingly contentious topic. A select subsection of the population was up in arms about Harry Potter several years ago for the fictional boy wonder’s “promotion” of witchcraft, while the agnostic/atheist crowd sometimes gets a little uncomfortable with the obvious Christian dogma of the Narnia series. Yet there’s one story that seemingly everyone loves—young and old, regardless of religion or creed, all human beings can agree that “The Wind in the Willows” is a great book. Written by Kenneth Grahame in 1908 about a group of animal chums in an English forest, it’s a gentle and lovingly written meditation on the importance of friendship and the peaceful beauty of nature. A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh series, perhaps put it best when he wrote: “The book is a test of character. We can't criticize it, because it is criticizing us. But I must give you one word of warning. When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgment … on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself. You may be worthy; I don't know. But it is you who are on trial.”
The good people at Shakespeare Santa Cruz understand the devotion we all feel towards “The Wind in the Willows.” In 1997, it was their inaugural holiday show; this year, they’re premiering a new version as their winter performance on Nov. 21-Dec. 14, written by Kate Hawley and Paul Whitworth and directed by Randall Stuart. It’s probable that many members of the audience will be children. Yet Mike Ryan and Paul Susi, playing the parts of Toad and Badger respectively, agree that the story remains so beloved due to the fact that its message is, as Ryan puts it, “ageless,” with surprisingly complex themes that resonate well into adulthood. Susi adds that the book “was written at a time when the line between children’s and adult’s literature was a little bit more iffy. There’s an edge of melancholy in the story; a pensiveness. It’s hard not to think about the shadow of the First World War about to happen, and all of the transformations that British society and global society were about to experience. I can’t help but read that into some of the proto-environmentalist themes [of the book], the sense that you should hold onto the simple, that you should savor friendship, that things endure even when everything changes. And I can’t help but read that into our current situation too.”
All this might sound like heady stuff for a simple tale about small woodland creatures. But fear not: the book and the play both feature a heaping dose of sly satire and even more slapstick humor, most of it coming from the vaguely deranged and highly excitable Toad (who Ryan characterizes more kindly as a creature for whom “what he wants is very apparent, and he goes for it with a kind of gusto”). “The Wind in the Willows” also contains that old stand-by of British humor, cross-dressing, a national pastime, which Susi opines comes from “being cold and wet on a small island with not much else to do.” With veteran Shakespeare Santa Cruz actors and UCSC students acting alongside child performers (whom Ryan and Susi agree are “ridiculously cute”), this winter’s performance promises to give us all a chance to re-visit our much loved old childhood friends in a new home.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s production of “The Wind in the Willows” plays from Nov. 21 to Dec. 14 at varied times. Tickets are $22-$39. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit Shakespeare Santa Cruz , Shakespeare Santa Cruz Tickets , or call 459-2159.
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