"The Tortoise And The Hare"

Derby Studio Theatre.

The lovely thing about reviewing theatre is that you get to see such a variety of productions, and when it comes around to Christmas, you also get to see some of the wonderful theatre that is produced for children. Every year Derby Theatre present a children's piece of theatre and this year it's "The Tortoise And The Hare", a story I remember so well from my childhood, and a story that I have read many times to my children over the years.

This story is a little different though and is set at Forest Green School on their annual sports day. Hare and Tortoise are pitted against each other having a race but Hare is so confident he will win that he takes a nap, while the tortoise, though slow, continues to move steadily, eventually crossing the finish line first. The story's moral is that "slow and steady wins the race," meaning perseverance and determination can overcome natural talent when it is combined with arrogance and idleness. There are several other moralistic messages here as well, like appreciating each other's strengths and abilities. All great messages for younger minds; older minds may also learn something from this show as well!

There's some adorable puppets that help tell the story, the actors are masters in the art of story telling, especially with the age range that this story is aimed at, and some ridiculously catchy pieces of original music and songs throughout. Writing music and songs that younger children will find catchy is never easy but these songs are brilliantly catchy, and there's even a bit of Queen in there as well.

The actors all come out into the audience before the show starts to chat to the youngsters, straight away breaking down any barriers and making everyone feel comfortable with the characters and the venue.

Laura Goulden and EJ Raymond share the role of Tortoise. The way that this works is EJ signs most of the role and Laura is the more visual physical element of Tortoise. Both actors work equally as hard and both are amazing with the entertaining side of the roles.

Amy Helena and Adam Robertson share the role of the Hare. As with Tortoise, Adam is the more physical visualisation of the character and Amy provides the majority of the signing, although all four character actors do sign.

Mr Aesop is played by Ivan Stott, who is also the Sound Designer and Composer of the original music you hear throughout the show. Ivan is a brilliant actor, and not just for children, and chances are, if you've attended any shows at Derby Theatre of late, you'll also have heard Ivan's work in the sound department there as well. 

All performances include integrated BSL, creative captions and integrated audio description. All five actors are incredibly talented visual actors, at times making everything bigger and more bolder and the kids love that. This is truly theatre made for children and completely inclusive for all.

Sarah Brigham, who is a force to be reckoned with this Christmas at Derby Theatre, is the Writer and Director and I like that she has taken a well worn fable of Aesop's and made it relative by incorporating it into a scenario that children know about; the annual sports day. I also loved the silliness of some of the pairings i.e. the worm going in for the high jump, the millipede in the three legged race, the spider doing the shot put, very silly, and what I love about creative and clever writing for young children, and young children at heart. 

John Barber designed and directed the marvellous tortoise and hare puppets that you see. The hare being a cross between Hartley Hare (if you're too young, Google it) and Brer Rabbit. The tortoise puppet was uber cute. 

Rachana Jadhav has designed the set which folds out to create a threefold set with the exterior of the school, the school gym as well as the sports day scene. All three scenes have moving and removable sections and had been constructed and designed with great thought and also to take up the minimum of space.

The costumes have been designed by Tim Heywood and immediately you could tell which actors were playing which roles just by looking at the costumes.

Lighting Designer is Jessica Brigham, assisted by Stephen Crofts. 

Ben Glover's creative captioning make sure that this children's show ticks all the boxes for theatre equality. There's a lot of visual cleverness and thought gone into this captioning as well because if the captioning was describing something that was going into the distance, i.e. the description of the javelin being thrown, the words would also recede into the distance, creating another visual element to the script. The section with the Queen song also created excitement visually and graphically and along with the song was edited beautifully. Inclusive theatre for children is really exciting to watch from a technical point of view, but there's a lot of work that goes into children's theatre nowadays.

Ben Wilson is the Audio Description Consultant.

Donna Mullings is the BSL Consultant.

Movement Director is Stacey Green.

The show's Producers are Nur Khairlyah and Stuart Allen.

A classic story given a fresh coat of paint for a modern audience, but still as entertaining and a great way to drip feed moralistic messages without them ever noticing, and all through the power of entertainment and theatre.

"The Tortoise And The Hare" is at Derby Studio Theatre until Saturday 3 January 2026 and is a real treat for children of any age.

Photographs by Graeme Braidwood.