What would a Frog Prince and an Ugly Duckling have in common?
Plenty, it seems, judging from ITheatre's year-end theatre extravaganza, Hop & Honk, a play that imaginatively tries to weave the two well-known fairy tales into one.
Mei and I made a girly date of it on the Saturday afternoon after the kids' year-end concert as the boys took off to do their own thing (ie. play with LEGO!) Being familiar with both tales, she was excited to see the duckling turn into a beautiful swan and… the Princess! Heh, guess the Frog Prince himself didn't hold much attraction for her!
Stripey frogs - NOT the family of the Frog Prince, much to his dismay.
While the two characters and the original tales provide the inspiration for this production, the story here is an original tale, starting off with its own backstory of how the swan's egg ended up in a duck's nest and how the prince got turned into a frog. From there, the story flows on to tell the tale of Cygna the ugly "duckling" and Anura the frog prince, their unlikely friendship, and their quest to find "the Land of No Difference", where they would not be judged and where their differences would be appreciated.
Ducklings with their teacher, the goose Edina and their sweet mother Anna Merganser.
With some catchy songs, witty dialogue and pretty spectacular sets, even though this is a show targeted at kids, I (the adult) actually enjoyed this show a lot more than I had expected. Mei was entertained enough to sit through the whole 85 minutes, though she got a little frightened when Herodias the Heron, the villain of the story made his appearance. How she laughed when his pants got pulled down to reveal his orange legs! Her favourite character was the pink Princess Trixibelle for obvious reasons, while I really liked Herodias' sidekicks, the weasels Chester and Lester, whose quick talking provided many laughs.
Herodias caught with his pants down!
Sweet Cygna, now a beautiful swan, with Anura the frog prince.
It was altogether a great production, with plenty of good messages about respecting differences and being a good friend. I would recommend it more for children aged 6 and above though. It was a bit long for my fidgety little 3-year old and much of the humour, which I appreciated, simply flew over her head. Which is not to say that she didn't enjoy it though. She was still talking about the story and characters for days later. We also really appreciated the fact that the programme booklet had a colouring page and a spot-the-difference quiz that the kids enjoyed completing. Click here for some free Hop & Honk printables from littledayout.com!
Hop and Honk is on till Saturday 15 Nov 2014. For more ticketing information, do refer to my previous post here.
One of the best parts of attending an ITheatre performance: Getting to meet-and-greet the characters thereafter! Of course Mei was really excited, only the freeze up when it got to be our turn.
Thanks for an entertaining afternoon, ITheatre!
*We were provided with tickets to the show for the purpose of this review. All opinions remain our own.
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