Reviewed by Kathryn Harrison
Yesterday afternoon (Sunday 21st July) my husband and I visited the Parr Hall theatre in Warrington along with our nearly seven year old daughter, two year old daughter and three year old nephew to watch The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show. All three children love or, in the case of my eldest daughter, loved this book and as it’s also a favourite of mine and my husband’s we were all looking forward to watching it.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar was first published in 1969, meaning that this year it is celebrating its 50th birthday! With over 43 million copies of the book sold worldwide I bet most people will have heard of it even if they haven’t read it. But for anyone who has managed to miss it the story tells of a little caterpillar who hatches from his egg and goes in search of food before retiring to his cocoon and emerging as a beautiful butterfly. The illustrations within the book are very unique and recognisable so I was wondering how that would translate to the stage.
When the play began there were three actors on stage and they began to tell the story of Brown Bear, Bear, then Ten Little Rubber Ducks, moving on to The Very Lonely Firefly before finishing with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The stories were told using 75 amazing puppets that, along with the rhythmic dialogue, kept the children mesmerised. All of the stories are Eric Carle stories but I must confess other than the Very Hungry Caterpillar I wasn’t aware of any of the others. All had the familiar tone and repetitiveness that children love and were really enjoyable tales. Brown Bear, Brown Bear is full of colours and animals, this was the first story that introduced the audience to the puppets and they were magical, my children particularly liked the white dog especially when it started liking faces! Ten Little Rubber Ducks tells the story of a box of rubber ducks thrown overboard at sea and the animals they encounter with a lovely, moving ending. Then The Very Lonely Firefly was full of lights as the firefly tries to find his firefly friends and keeps getting sidetracked by other kinds of lights. The children all enjoyed these stories however towards the middle of The Very Lonely Firefly my two year old did keep asking “where’s the caterpillar?”
When The Very Hungry Caterpillar began the excitement in the room was palpable. My daughter and nephew squealed with glee when the caterpillar emerged from the egg. We read this book to my younger daughter pretty much every night so she is very familiar with the story and characters. The whole audience counted out loud as the caterpillar worked his way eating through the fruit and there was a lot of laughter when the caterpillar turned into a big, fat caterpillar. As the show reached its ends there were audible gasp of wonder and amazement as the caterpillar emerged from his cocoon as the beautiful butterfly.
Although all the children enjoyed the show, my older daughter did appear slightly bored at points whereas my younger daughter and my nephew were entranced throughout, based on this I would recommend this show more to families with younger children, perhaps under 5’s. At just under an hour long, with no interval it is the perfect length for small children with their equally small attention span. I really enjoyed watching this show, it was a charming production full of enchanting puppets.
Rating: 5/5
For other shows at the Parr Hall in Warrington visit parrhall.culturewarrington.org or call the box office on 01925 442884.
Pyramid & Parr Hall, Cultural Quarter, Palmyra Square South, Warrington, WA1 1BL
