Hey Diddle Diddle At Theatre By the Lake, Keswick Review

Reviewed by Jo Hardy

Cartoons and characters come and go in popularity but nursery rhymes stay around from generation to generation and play an important part in childhood development. When I told our four year we were going to see “Hey Diddle Diddle” she immediately recited the whole nursery rhyme to me.

When we entered the theatre we walked past a little ticket booth that had been set up at the edge of the stage and all the children were given a ticket that was also a sticker.  This went down very well.  All children love stickers don’t they. The other actor was showing people the their seats with the help of a little mouse that was squeaking and running up and down her arms.

During the show we met some of the nursery rhyme characters who all had strong personalities.  Humpty Dumpty who’s outfit reminded me of Elvis (the vegas years) did some dare devil acts on his skateboard including jumping over a brave volunteer from the audience.  There were some good egg puns slotted into the commentary.

The flea acrobat troop were good, even though we couldn’t actually see them we could imagine what they were doing with the help of sound effects.

Who knew incy wincy spider was French ? We’d never heard her speak until today but she has a lovely french accent, and she soon had us all singing along to the incy wincy spider song.

The cow that jumped over the moon was such a diva and really made us laugh.  She was a bit like Miss Piggy from the Muppets.  Everyone in the audience had to sparkle like stars to help make the moon come out for her to jump over, all the children joined in.

One of the best parts for us was when all the audience had to stand up and become the band by playing different instruments.

What a lovely time we had the two cast members were full of fun and energy and interacted so well with the children.  They told us some good children jokes which I wish I could remember.  When we came out of the theatre they were there handing out activity sheets to the children.  I thought that was a lovely personal touch.

Presented by “Kitchen Zoo” who are experts in producing shows for a young audience. We came to see another show presented them “The Hare and the Tortoise” last year and our four year old still talks about it.  She even recognised one of the cast members as being the tortoise we saw in the previous show.

The show is at theatre by the lake on 11th and 12th April with shows at 11am and 2pm it’s suitable for ages 0 – 6 years it is staged in the upstairs studio and lasts 45 minutes which is a perfect length for the target audience.
Tickets are priced at £12 for an adult and £10 for under sixteens with an adult they can be purchased from theatrebythelake.com

Check out the production companies website kitchenzootheatre.com for dates for other areas and other shows.

Rating: 5/5