Classic tale of humour blended with arrogance comes to life in Rosebud

Times Reporter 

 

Toad of Toad Hall is a beloved and classic tale which comes out of the book Wind in the Willows written by Kenneth Grahame in 1908. Wind in the Willows is the story of Rat, Mole and Badger and of course Toad. 

The production, which is an adaptation by Rebecca Wohlgemuth of the stage play adaption by A. A. Milne, will be coming to the Rosebud Studio Stage this Friday.

“Toad is almost eccentric in how you describe him. He’s very cocky and self-assured; he defines himself in many, many ways as rugged and daring and successful and glorious and magnificent and undefeatable. He’s very, very self confident,” said Brynn Linsey, who has been cast as Toad. 

She said he is also very much a gentleman, a classic English gentleman with a very sort of childlike perspective on the world. The performance follows the efforts of Toad’s loyal friends as they rescue him from different sticky situations he gets into, and while they help him reclaim Toad Hall from the pesky weasels that have overtaken it. Jeany Van Meltebeke is directing the performance and says it has been really fun to celebrate the kind of arrogance and audacity that Toad portrays. 

Toad has a fascination for technical things, and once he sees his first motorcar he is immediately obsessed with them. Van Meltebeke said it’s fun to see Toad’s fascination with motorcars and machine-driven equipment.

One of her favourite scenes is when Toad steals a car for a second time. Toad attempted to steal a car, which landed him in jail. He comes out disguised as an elderly woman and asks the Smith-Jones’ if they will give him a ride. Little do they know it was Toad who had stolen their car in the first place. 

“So for the second time he’s in this car and he asks to move to the front seat to get air and he eventually asks to drive and they think oh let’s let the woman drive a little bit and then of course he crashes the car. Just his intense passion, his addiction for being behind the wheel, watching that in the scene is really, really fun,” said Van Meltebeke.

“I think the best part about doing the show is being able to be absolutely free in how you interpret the script, you can be as goofy physically as you like because he’s such a far out character,” said Linsey. 

“He is absolutely the opposite of who I am in my every day life. I think I see a lot of my own desire to be outgoing and hyper expressive. In some ways I see huge similarities between myself and Toad because he gets to be everything sometimes that I would like to be. 

“He’s totally self-assured that he can walk into any situation and be confident and unashamed of what he says about himself or what he does. In other ways he’s like my least favourite person in the whole world because he’s so self assured and so cocky, he’s one of those guys who walks into a room and tells everyone he’s the best multiple times.”

The set design is simple, and will be the imagination of the audience, guided by the actors that will really bring the scenes to life. 

The play is being produced by second year Rosebud School of the Arts students, and the music is by Rachel Peacock. The first showing is on Nov. 30 at 4:30 p.m. It will run Thursday to Sunday until Dec. 22 on the studio stage, always at 4:30 p.m. The hope is to encourage patrons to spend the day in Rosebud, first taking in Toad of Toad Hall and then staying for the evening buffet and the main stage production May and Joe. 

Tickets can be purchased by call 1-800-267-7553 or online at www.rosebudtheatre.com.