The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been one of my children's favourite books from a very young age, So when they saw that there was a live theatre show they were both super excited to go and see it.
The very hungry caterpillar show was created by Jonathan Rockefeller and it uses 75 amazing puppets to bring to life 4 of Eric Carle's classic stories. For the 2023 UK tour along with the very hungry caterpillar the following stories are also brought to life on stage, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, 10 Rubber Ducks & The Very Lonely Firefly (other tours may feature 3 different stories)
The first story we were treated to was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, in this story we meet the beautiful large bear puppet as he is asked "What do you see" he sees a red bird, the bird is then asks "What do you see" and the story carries on in this manner. Some of the puppets featured in this story include a purple cat, white dog, black sheep and a Goldfish.
The next story was 10 Rubber Ducks, this tells the story of 10 rubber ducks which get packed into a box and put on to a boat. The box accidently falls off the boat and the ducks fall into the see and get separated, we then see each little ducks journey as each duck meets a different animal. In this story we get to meet some beautiful puppets, our favourites were the flamingo and pelican.
The next story was the very Lonely Firefly, this is the story of a firefly who is searching for its firefly friends. In this story we get to meet an Owl, a dog, a cat and even the moon. One of my favourite parts of this story was when retractable streamers were thrown out into the audience to represent fireworks going off.
The last story was the one every one had been waiting for the very hungry caterpillar this story tells of a little egg on a leaf which hatches a little caterpillar, the caterpillar is very hungry and goes in search of food. Several different sized caterpillar puppets are used to show how the caterpillar grows as he eats more and more food. The caterpillar puppets are beautiful and I love the way they moved, the food that the caterpillar eats is represented by large flat wooden props with little flaps in which the caterpillar pokes his head out to show h has eaten through it.
Once the caterpillar has finished eating he makes a cocoon, this is represented by a sack like bag which the caterpillar puppet is put into. Eventually he is released from the cocoon to reveal a beautiful butterfly. The butterfly puppet is stunning and looks just like the one from the book
The first thing I noticed when we entered the auditorium was that colourful spots had been projected onto the white backdrop of the stage, this reminded me straightaway of the inside cover of the book. The set for this show was very simple and consisted of three white boards which to me resembled the white pages of a book, each of these boards had some little doors on them which puppets would pop out of during the show. As well as the all white set the puppeteers also wore white, this made them blend into the background and allowed the puppets to really stand out on the stage and capture the little ones attention.
The Cast for this show were all excellent, unfortunately their were no program and I haven't been able to find out any of the cast's names but they were all brilliant puppeteers and story tellers.
The show is 50 minutes long which is the perfect length for the age range this show is aimed at which is 1+ any longer and I think the younger ones would start to get restless.
This is an excellent family show and would be the perfect show to introduce a child to the theatre. I rated the show 4 stars.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show is at the lowry until 16th April then it will be continuing on its UK tour.
Photo Credit - Pamela Raith
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*Our tickets for this show were kindly gifted in exchange for an honest review
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