Just So

Synopsis

Set at the beginning of time, along Africa’s Limpopo River, the Eldest Magician created a world full of beasts, birds and fish. Everything was just so, until Pau Amma the Crab began playing with the ocean, causing a flood that threatened the other animals. To stop the crab, the Elephant’s Child must embark on a quest down the Limpopo River. With the help of the Kolokolo Bird they discover a world of weird and wonderful creatures and learn how the leopard got his spots, how the rhinoceros got his skin, and how curiosity and a hungry crocodile can turn an elephant’s small nose into a very large trunk.

Our Review:

20 June 2004

Rudyard Kipling wrote his Just So Stories in 1902, probably to entertain his younger daughter, who must have been about six, on their long voyages to Africa and India, his birthplace. The stories are devised to stimulate a child’s curiosity and imagination, taking in, as they do, many of the different cultures of the world and bringing in true place names “you can look it up in the atlas, Best Beloved” as well as strange invented ones.

George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s newly revised musical cleverly combines almost all of the stories into one delightful, entertaining whole. Stiles’ music is beautifully melodic while the book and intelligent lyrics by Drewe, who also directs, are superbly effective at conveying and cohering Kipling’s stories. What’s more, Just So does Kipling justice by being, in a very gentle manner, educational and thought-provoking, thanks in large part to the “satiably curious” Elephant’s Child (played by Richard Dempsey) an...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (195.92.67.76) - 1 September 2004:

One of the best shows I've seen all year. Sheer theatre that used the magic of live performance to engross the audience. Wonderful score (fingers crossed for a cast album), superb performances and a top notch orchestra (with a grooving David Shrubsole!). ...

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