What the Ladybird Heard at the Richmond Theatre Review
What the Ladybird Heard
Richmond Theatre
3-6 July 2014
Reviewed by Lilias Campbell
We are big Julia Donaldson fans in our house so it was with a little trepidation and much excitement that we took our boys along to see What the Ladybird Heard.
Trepidation because at one and three it takes something special to hold their attention and we had heard mixed reviews of other JD adaptations, even with a running time of just 55 minutes we thought we may be pushing our luck. We needn’t have worried as catchy songs, puppets and lots of audience participation from the beginning meant that for the most part both boys were enthralled.
The original story is quite short so this version has a bit of a sub plot to it, where this became more involved my three year olds attention began to wander but I could see that the older children in the audience were still on board (and it was nothing a packet of raisins couldn’t tide us through) before more songs and the original story reeled him back in. Our one year old is of course too young to follow the plot at all but the beautiful set which feels almost as though you’ve stepped into the book along with changing lighting and music kept him engaged.
Four days later, my son is still singing two of the songs and telling his friends all about it – a resounding success in my book!
Rating: 4.5/5
What the Ladybird Heard is touring the UK until September. For more information or to book tickets visit www.whattheladybirdheardlive.co.uk.
Richmond Theatre. The Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ | 0844 871 7651
