![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/peter-rabbit.jpg)
Show: Beatrix Potter™ Tales
Society: Chelmsford Ballet Company, The
Venue: Civic Theatre Chelmsford. Fairfield Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1JG
Credits: In association with Frederick Warne & Co.
Type: Sardines
Author: Michael Gray
Performance Date: 17/03/2022
Beatrix Potter™ Tales
Michael Gray | 18 Mar 2022 14:36pm
This show has been three years in the making; it was the first show at this address to fall victim to the pandemic.
A company favourite, it brings us the familiar characters and Lanchbery’s lovely arrangements, but uses original choreography by Artistic Director, Annette Potter.
But first, the prologue, in which the demure Miss Potter [Olivia Riley] sits at her modest desk desperately seeking inspiration. Her study is invaded by the creatures which will people Mr Warnes’ little books for children: rabbits, mice, and a familiar duck, artlessly posing on pointe. And Beatrix takes up brush and pen …
This curtain-raiser uses music by another Australian composer – Nigel Westlake, from his score for the Miss Potter biopic.
First of the menagerie in the ballet proper is the house-proud Mrs Tittlemouse [Sophia Odell]. And then a delightful succession of scenes and solos, including Alycia Potter’s confident Peter Rabbit, and Anna Gellett’s characterful Mrs Tiggywinkle, venturing a decorous high-kick as she shepherds her brood of hedgehoglets.
Proud, preening pigs make an immediate impression; the coy courtship of Pig-wig, the Black Berkshire, [the excellent Darci Willsher] and Pigling Bland [guest artist Xholindi Muçi] one of many memorable moments. Another, very different, courtship sees Jemima Puddleduck, beautifully created by Samantha Ellis, take to the air to avoid the culinary attentions of her foxy gentleman, Anna Gellett again dancing Mr Tod.
We may have seen naughtier mice, but Isabelle Fallows and Abigail Wiltshire have a jolly time exploring the dolls’ house, and there’s splendid ensemble work from the squirrels, led by Rachel Young’s delightful Nutkin.
It’s a huge company, and the ensemble work is inventive and effective, giving every dancer a chance to inhabit a character, helped not a little by the wonderful costumes and masks. The staging too is constantly impressive: Mr McGregor’s wellies, Jeremy Fisher’s watery world [the amphibious angler an agile Kiera Cook], the superbly lit autumnal picnic where the characters make a welcome return, divertissement style, to claim their place in the setting sun. An all too brief appearance by Echo Murrill’s slinky Tabitha Twitchit, an expansive porcine pas-de-deux, before the creatures creep back between the covers.
A triumphant return to the stage, long awaited by this enterprising company and their many fans, who have a welcome opportunity to meet in the foyer for selfies with squirrels, mice and Beatrix herself.