YOUNG children love Sarah & Duck. Adults do too.
It’s a charming cartoon that lives on CBeebies, and tells the story of a wide-eyed, seven-year-old girl and her feathered best friend.
Now it’s being brought to life in a new stage show coming to The Hexagon in Reading next month.
There will be five performances between Wednesday, February 26 and Friday, February 28, all at family-frinedly times.
The show sees Sarah and Duck and their friends plan a circus-themed birthday part of Scarf Lady.
But there are dark clouds on the horizon: a storm is coming and the big top is in danger. Will it be a case of send in the clowns, or will Sarah end up with a custard pie in her face?
The story is told through a blend of inventive puppetry, storytelling and music, and features all the familiar voices from the CBeebies series including Roger Allam as the Narrator and Lesley Nicol as Scarf Lady.
For the stage show, Roman Stefanski is directing. He has been the Associate Director at Polka Theatre in London for 35 years, where he has directed countless children’s theatre productions including the smash-hit stage version of Charlie and Lola which has toured all over the world.
Here, Roman talks about his approach to adapting children’s TV shows for the stage.
Did you know Sarah & Duck before you started working on the stage adaptation?
A little. I had come across it while working on my other CBeebies stage show Charlie and Lola, and really enjoyed the style of animation and the hugely likeable characters.
Sarah & Duck has enjoyed phenomenal success on TV. What do you think makes it so popular?
I think the success of Sarah & Duck comes from the simple but well-written characters and storylines. The show includes many zany characters, that are immediately accepted as friends, and so Sarah’s world is wonderfully diverse.
What can audiences expect from Sarah & Duck’s Big Top Birthday?
Audiences will meet up with many of the loved characters from the TV series including Scarf Lady and the Ribbon Sisters. They are all brought to life by fantastic handcrafted puppets, animated by a talented cast of four puppeteers.
The set is hugely colourful and to look at definitely rings true with the TV series.
Tanera Dawkins’ music from the series is also used throughout the show which means children can sing along. Sarah sings a firework song which is a strong favourite with our younger audiences!
What are the challenges of transporting Sarah & Duck into the 3D world of theatre?
The main challenge with Sarah & Duck is that the TV episodes are only eight-minutes long, whereas the stage show is 60-minutes. This means we have to present a much bigger story which develops throughout the show, with lots of different exciting and fun moments.
The other challenge is performing to a live audience which are sometimes 10 or 15 metres away.
In a TV show you can use close-ups to show the expressions of each character. In a theatre the audience sees the whole stage all the time, so you have to use sound, lighting, and clever staging to draw the audience’s attention to where the focus should be.
Why is it important for children experience theatre at a young age?
Theatre is live, and it is a shared experience. There is something magical about that which all children should be able to experience. In a theatre you are watching a unique show – no two shows are exactly the same – and you are experiencing it with a whole group of people.
This is a totally different experience to watching something on TV where you might be by yourself and surrounded by all the familiarity of home.
In a theatre, audiences are enjoying a performance that is being aimed at them personally. This is an amazing feeling and one all children should enjoy.
Sarah and Duck’s Big Top Birthday is performed at 10.30am (excluding Wed) and 4pm, from Wednesday, February 26 to Friday, February 28. Tickets cost from £11.50, and there are discounts for groups and family tickets are available. For more information visit whatsonreading.com or call 0118 960 6060.
