The Gruffalo’s Child Review

With TVs and computers now so readily available to them, kids and toddlers are becoming an increasingly tough crowd to please. Wearing their best Gruffalo-themed attire, hundreds of excitable children and their parents made their way to The Kings Theatre in Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon to watch Tall Stories’ touring stage adaption of The Gruffalo’s Child in action.

Based on the award-winning book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, The Gruffalo’s Child tells the story of The Gruffalo’s mischievous daughter who sets off into the ‘deep dark wood’ to find the ‘big bad mouse’, despite her father telling her not to. Unlike most sequels, the story is almost as popular as the original.

The fantastic cast members told the story in a fun and simple manner, which made it easy for even the youngest audience members to understand. With a narrative led by daft and catchy songs, the audience (both young and old!) wereclapping, laughing and singing along from start to finish.

At 50 minutes in length, the performance was a little too long to not have an interval (the little boy beside me thought it was ‘ICE CREAM TIME’ every time the crew put on the house lights) but the cast managed to skilfully retain the audience’s attention with their boundless enthusiasm and wacky costumes.

A great family show for those aged 3+.