The Wind In The Willows

Two Saturdays ago we took the kids to the Royal Botanic Gardens to see their yearly production of "the Wind in the Willows" performed by the Sydney Shakspeare Company. It was AMAZING! We loved it! The characters- Rabbit, Weasle, Mole, Ratty, Badger, Otter and his pup, and the famous Mr. toad were all there- singing, playing the guitar, and acting up a storm. The kids were in awe, especially Ethne. They were still and silent through all of the production and had to be prodded to do get up and move when required :) They were so cute. At one point in the performance they move you to another spot so everyone packs up their picnics and walks 200m or so and sits down again at Toad Hall where we meet Mr. Toad. Then they split up into two age groups with the children and take them on a walk through part of the gardens to look for the lost otter pup, before coming back to Toad Hall. It was hot hot hot and we drank a lot of water throughout the performance and went in search of more water at the end of the show, but it was worth it. We brought baguettes, good cheese, roastbeef, and tiny little pickles for our picnic and ate lunch durring the show.

You can tell we were the first ones there and got the very best seats. This was about 20 or 30 minutes before it started.

 The wonderful Cast at the show + other peoples children we couldn't avoid :)

 Enoch and Ethne with the cast. Ethne didn't know they were behind her and she quickly moved when she figured it out. Ezra refused to be in the picture :( There were so many other children it was hard to get a good picture of mine.

I would highly reccomend the show to anyone in the area next year. It runs every summer durring school holidays.

The costumes were great the songs were fun and the whole show was very funny. The actors periodically show up next to you in the audience which makes the children stare in wide eyed wonderment. And when they unpack their picnic basket be prepared to be beamed with dinner rolls when the action picks up :) Don't be shy either they expect you to pick them up and throw them back if you want.

A good tip is to sit upfront and in the middle when they get to toad's place in hopes that you will get sprayed with water to cool off when the weasles take over "Toad Hall". We were jealous of those who were getting sprayed while we sweated a little too far to the left.
Overall lots of fun for the whole family and well worth the money. We are glad we went.