Last updated 05:17, Friday, 21 November 2008

T he award-winning Alan Bennett version of the ever-green children’s favourite is being staged by the Caldbeck Players.

Irrepressible: Jonathan Crossland as the washer woman, front, with Dick Bird as the magistrate and Samantha Bell the magistrate's clerk in Wind in the Willows

A rowing boat, a gipsy caravan, a car and a cast of thousands (well, almost) will be appearing in a new production of Wind in the Willows this weekend.

The West End version was based on two moving circular stages, this one at the village hall uses the stage and a fair amount of hall space as well.

Director Ken Woolfenden admits the show is ambitious, but it promises to be all-action with the audience in the thick of things.

There are songs, a big set-piece fight and a huge country dance finale.

“We will be on stage and on the hall floor with people coming in from all sorts of entrances and exits,” explained Ken as he took a break from rehearsals earlier this week. “It really is a challenge. We have been rehearsing it for two months. One reason we are using the hall floor is because we are using a rowing boat, a gipsy caravan and a car. They come on in front of the stage and also through the audience.

“There are 33 children, aged seven to 13 and 10 adults involved. All the children have speaking parts and are mainly from Caldbeck and Welton. The older children play weasels and ferrets, the younger ones are playing mice, hedgehogs and squirrels.”

A key part of the production is costume and make-up, with all the actors having to undergo a transformation into a woodland creature.

“There is an enormous amount of make-up to put on,” said Ken, a retired schoolteacher. “We have four make-up artists, but we have also trained up the parents to make-up the children.”

Because there are so many children involved, the Players will be performing a Sunday matinee for the first time in years.

The move has proved so popular that the Sunday show has already sold out.

Ken added: “We normally give some indication of what ages our productions are suitable for, but there are so many children involved and there is so much action in it, that three or four year-olds would enjoy it.

“I have worked on a couple of things in the past, but nothing on this scale. We performed Country Voices in the round which involved six actors playing 35 different parts and lots of different entrances – that was good preparation!”

Wind in the Willows is on at Caldbeck Village Hall on Sunday, November 23 at 2.30pm and from Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £5 for adults and £3 for children and OAP, available from the Caldbeck Post Office, the Hesket Newmarket shop and by calling 016974 78600.