The Boy Who Cried Wolf at the Crucible Theatre Review
The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield
11 December 2013 – 4 January 2014
Reviewed by Jenny Seymour
I took my 4 year old nephew and his Granddad to the Crucible Studio Theatre in Sheffield to see The Boy Who Cried Wolf by Mike Kenny and we arrived as the show was starting, so we were quietly shown to our seats in this intimate theatre, but there were plenty of ushers to help us. I was also able to take my 12 week old baby and she actually watched a lot of the show too! The set was colourful and worked well – especially the village huts that lit up and the costume changes.
At first I thought that it would be a difficult tale to tell and keep the children engaged, but how wrong I was. The theatre was fairly full of school children, who within minutes were roaring with laughter at the woolly-hatted sheep wriggling their bottoms and at just 55 minutes long – the time flew by.
This cautionary tale of the boy who tells lies was told very well. The story is of course quite repetitious – the boy cries wolf twice before the wolf actually appears. However, this worked well because it meant the moral of the story – no-one trusts a liar even when he is telling the truth – is also repeated, so that the children were able to shout it out by the time the wolf arrived!
The wolf was done well for this age group as well. The actors simply made the wolf cries and the shepherd boy managed to fend off the wolf and save his sheep, so it wasn’t scary for little ones as it could have been.
As we were leaving the theatre the 3 cast members gave out colouring sheets, counting sheet (to count sheep of course!) and book marks to the children. A nice educational twist, which also means you can discuss the moral of the story when you get back home.
I do recommend a visit to this show. My only disappointment was that I wasn’t able to go to a showing for my little boy who is at school – he is a bit of a storyteller and could perhaps have done with being shown the moral of the Boy Who Cried Wolf!
Rating: 5/5
Tickets: £6 child / £10 adult / £25 family (admits 4, max 2 adults) plus transaction fee.
For more information or to book tickets click here.
