Three Little Pigs

MARK NICHOLLS

It's a familiar tale: three pigs build houses of straw, sticks and bricks and then a big bad wolf comes along and tries to blow them down.

The difficulty with productions such as this is how to bring them to life in a fresh and vibrant way for a modern children's audience.

This production at the Theatre Royal, while re-telling the story, didn't quite light up the young audience in the way that some of the more imaginative productions at the theatre have in the past.

We had Horace, (lazy pig), Boris (stupid pig) and Norris (studious pig), all pitched against BB Wolf and vowing on the hairs on their chinny, chin chins not to let him in.

There was plenty of huffing and puffing by the hungry wolf waiting to eat the three little pigs, with references to pork, ham and bacon sandwiches thrown in at regular intervals and a couple of the houses did fall down.

In between there were appearances by a delightful poetic fairy who proceeded to whack the wolf over the nose with her magic wand panto-fashion.

The pre-recorded songs were melodic but lacked the familiarity and sing-a-long appeal that children would have been able to join in with.

But at the end of it, the Big Bad Wolf was duly defeated by the brickwork and promised to be good forever and ever and ever.

In fact, he promised everything except to become a vegetarian.