Days with Frog and Toad

Company devised based on the stories by Arnold Lobel Summer

The project was created by Theatr Iolo, for Infant schools, from stories by Arnold Lobel. Set in a Waiting for Godot/Laurel & Hardeyesque world, the piece explores and celebrates the friendship of two characters, Frog & Toad. It deals with themes of instant versus delayed gratification; fear and courage, the making and breaking of friendships, loneliness and choosing to spend time alone. The project was designed to appeal to a wide age range in the Infant school (including Nurseries) with a Teachers' Resource Pack complementing the production with specifically targeted ideas for the different ages in the school. Artistically, Frog & Toad was a synthesis of elements that had been strong in previous work by Theatr Iolo for this age group. A strong and imaginative sense of storytelling aims to deal with themes of concern to a young child in an unpatronising way. Original music and sound effects were composed by Paula Gardiner and involved live cello and percussion as well as the use of everyday objects and was an extremely successful element of the piece which Theatr Iolo plans to develop further. For the second tour Paula Gardiner was the musician and played guitar and double bass. Because of the nature of the piece various new markets were opened e.g. art centres, nurseries, family audiences and these were developed during the re-tour of Summer 1998.

 

In Austria the company played to older pupils, 10-13, and ran workshops for pupils learning English. The production was analysed and criticised by a group of international writers and considered to be one of the best productions in the festival. A Croatian writer, Borivoj Radakovic, said of the piece "reminiscent of Waiting for Godot the humanity, deep seated humour and tenderness of Frog & Toad truly warms the heart".