Fantastic Mr Fox

The Bridgetown Repertory’s end of year shows this year will be ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. This production is based on the book by beloved children’s author Roald Dahl and adapted for the stage by David Wood.

The end of year show always requires a huge effort from a lot of people, especially when there is a large cast of thirty-six, and being the Christmas show it has a lot of young ones on stage.

This year’s show has brought a couple of surprising talented, creative and willing workers to assist with this production, one of whom is Shirley Hassen, she is handling the costumes.

Shirley has in a previous life worked as a seamstress for the WA Opera Company. That experience taught her one thing and that is ‘the show must go on’, so with a dogged attitude and lots of help she has managed to outfit the thirty-six cast members.

Shirley confides with us on how she has managing, “We haven’t had to make any new costumes, but we have had to alter, dye and repair all the ones we have chosen.

“It was my first time being involved in a production at the Repertory. Going back stage I found there a very extensive wardrobe full of all sorts of clothing that had been made or sourced over the years.

“The way we went about it was, firstly, we divided the actors into colour grouping. For the badgers we sorted black and white costumes, for the weasels we found salmon-coloured clothes, moles are brown and fawn, rabbits grey and pink and the foxes have a green costume.

“I had a lot of help from Lin Ash, Kaye McLennan, who said she’d do just a little and has worked tirelessly ever since, Susan Wheatley and Phoebe and Abi O’Wallace.

“All of the helpers have gone about their tasks and have never seemed fazed at any time by the extensive task we have all taken on. The wardrobe costumes have been blended and combined, shortened or lengthened, laced up or loosened, pleated or gusseted, dyed and of course some have been reimagined into different outfits.

“Because a lot of the characters are underground animals, I thought we may have to dirty the costumes a little, but under the new lighting systems we are finding the costume appear just right.

“We found three sets of dinner tails which were perfect for the rat costumes, not only because there are only three rats, but it suits their roles.

We found just enough fox tails, chicken outfits and some farmers’ baggy overalls for the farmers. All the cast are now outfitted.

Shirley concludes “I have really enjoyed being involved with this production, especially the role of mentor I’ve had with Abi. I’ve made new friendships and I’ve met with some interesting people I would not of met if I wasn’t part of the show, it’s been very rewarding.”

Another surprising find has been Abi O’Wallace, a fourteen-year-old who first came to the production of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ as part of the wardrobe team helping with the costumes, sketching conceptual designs, creating forest animal headwear, and then lending her creative talents to the design of the poster for the show. Some of her original illustrations will be on display in the theatre foyer.

Seeing the rehearsals and itching to be part of the stage play, Abi’s chance came when the role of the rat became vacant. Trying out for the role she read through the script and sang the rat’s song. The shows directors Emma and Ella McGuire found her naturally talented and ideal for the role.

Abi, usually quite shy, has found that playing a role is quite liberating, in the way that she is able to express herself through playing an extrovert character on stage, and therein lies another tale.

This multi-generational drama has something for everyone. The storyline follows a clever fox and his family who are living in a den under a tree. The fox is providing an abundance of food for his family which he is stealing from the local farmers.

Angered by the raids, the farmers decide to kill Mr. Fox. They camp out near his den, and when Mr. Fox emerges, they open fire but only manage to shoot off his tail.

Then in the ensuing chase the determined farmers end up demolishing the site and felling the tree with digging equipment while attempting to dig Mr. Fox and his family out from the den.

Come and see how the drama unfolds, there will be lots of unfair moments for you to boo at.

Will Mr Fox be able to save his family from the farmers who are determined to rid themselves of his nuisance? Does the fox have the smarts to outwit the farmers? What clever ruse will he think of to be forever remembered as the ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’?