The Mouse and his Child

Synopsis

A clockwork mouse and his child are discarded by children on Christman Day. Lost and alone, they desperately want to get back home to the toyshop. Russell Hoban's masterpiece The Mouse and his Child is the tale which has inspired a thousand wonderful stories about what really happens in the toy box when we're not looking.

Our Review:

3 December 2012

Resources are rarely an issue at the RSC, and so it proves with this lavish, expensive production of this year’s Christmas show. On the face of it, the money spent on sets, costumes and on-stage six-piece band appears to be money well spent, with a strong design by Angela Davies and some superb musicianship on display.

But scratch the surface of this knockabout extravaganza and you find... well, not very much at all, actually.
The original 1968 kids’ book by Russell Hoban, on which this new production is based, is not exactly a children’s classic, and anyone unfamiliar with it – as I was, despite four offspring of both varieties – may struggle to keep up.
It’s the tale of a tin clockwork mouse and his son, permanently joined together and constantly wide-eyed at the wonders of the world. The innocent pair are separated from their toy shop friends and subsequently face a terrifying journey through the harsh realities of life at the h...

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Latest User Review

A Mouse and His Child: a travesty - 9 December 2012:

Paid £250 to take my family to his event. The play, alas, does no justice to a book I have loved since the 60's. The `play' is a mismash of disparate stage tricks. The RSC in their new theatre seem to rely on stage gimmicks, not the plays, the words: they should all to to the Tobacco Factory in Bristol to learn how Shakespeare should be spoken, and how to do without spectular stage effects....

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