The Wind in the Wiltons Willows
Cast
Darrell Brockis - Toad
Melody Brown - Badger
Tom Chapman - Weasel
Paula James – Duck
Corey Montague Sholay - Mole
Chris Nayak – Otter
Rosie Wyatt – Rat
Adam Redmore – Understudy (Mole, Rat, Badger, Toad)
Creatives
Writer – Piers Torday
Director – Elizabeth Freestone
Associate Director – Joanna Bowman
Designer – Tom Piper
Lighting Designer – Zoe Spurr
Composer and Sound Designer – Chris Warner
Movement Director – Emma Brunton
Puppetry Designer – Samuel Wyer
Casting Director – Helena Palmer
Assistant Director – Segen Yosef
“I can’t imagine a stage adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic novel, The Wind in the Willows, without music.”
So says Piers Torday, award-winning author and adaptor of this new stage version of ‘The Wind in the Willows’, cunningly renamed ‘The Wind in the Wiltons'
It was a joy to be invited onboard the creative team for this 2022 Wilton’s Music Hall Christmas show, and to work closely with Piers and director Elizabeth Freestone on developing the music and soundworld for this sustainable production. In addition to the much loved songs from the original novel (‘Duck’s Ditty’, ‘The Song of Mr Toad’, ‘Carol of the Field Mice’), Piers created lyrics for a collection of new songs, some telling the story of the seasons, some locating us more directly in the world of the play and the Riverbankers. That’s not to say that the original Grahame classics weren’t ripe for modernisation. ‘Duck’s Ditty’, for example, is now the daily water aerobics workout for Mama Duck and all her Ducklings.
Duck Aerobics in full swing. Corey Montague-Sholay, Melody Brown, Paula James, Tom Chapman, Rosie Wyatt and Darrell Brockis. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/the Guardian
From the outset we wanted to celebrate and make a virtue out of the acoustic space that makes Wilton’s so special, and a decision was made not to use radio mics for either the cast or the instruments - this was an actor-musician show. This worked beautifully for the acoustic, seasonal songs. For many of the other character and action-based sequences I devised various means to keep up the narrative pace and impact, including megaphones, tik-tok routines, and backing tracks played by ‘Toadbot’ - Mr Toad’s latest gadget, an Alexa-style robot A.I. toad.
“There’s lots of pure silliness… Chris Warner’s musical compositions – played on the violin, clarinet, double bass and more by the cast – range from a Bob Dylan-esque folk song for Badger to a more street sound for Chris Nayak’s social-media star “sexy city Otter”, and a power ballad of self-pity for Toad.”
Pier’s writes in a guest block for thereviewshub.com that Grahame ‘infused his prose with lyricism, overflowing with breath-taking descriptions of the changing seasons and the beauty of the riverbank that are impossible to dramatize through dialogue and action alone’. The decision to include the often cut ‘Piper at the gates of dawn’ chapter offered such an opportunity to go beyond dialogue and action, with a beautifully choreographed sequence for the moment where Mole and Ratty meet the god Pan.
“in the play’s most mysterious scene the figure of Pan is evoked in a hauntingly mesmerising soundscape”
The actor-musicianship was embedded and integrated throughout the production, with Ratty (Rosie Wyatt) as a fiddle-playing, uke strumming wanna-be songwriter, Toad (Darrell Bricks) making mischief with his clarinet and banjolele, Paula James holding the whole ensemble together with acoustic guitar and Melody Brown as the bass playing, protest-song singing Badger
“It’s a lovely idea...Chris Warner’s music is played on bass, fiddle, guitar and clarinet by the cast, sometimes picking up on Grahame’s words sometimes fresh, sometimes a bit rappy.”
Handbells at the ready - Tom Chapman, Chris Nayak and Paula James with Tommy the Field Mouse and Portly the Otter
“Chris Warner seamlessly juxtaposes music from different eras, moving between ancient, folksy a cappella and handbells (very Shakespeare’s Globe!), to rap for Tik Tok and Billy Bragg-style protest songs. It’s all splendidly enjoyable.”