The Boy Who Cried Wolf is a story as old as time.
And yet, like many myths, legends and fables, it’s still being told.
Mike Kenny, who has adapted the well-known Aesop fable for this year’s children’s Christmas show at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, says writers can rarely go wrong with a tale that everyone is familiar with. Or think they know.
“As long as kids have been telling fibs there have been versions of this story,” he explained. “It’s as old as The Iliad or The Odyssey. Aesop collected these stories, they were already around.
“Theatre is drawn from old stories. For playwrights like me they are perfect. Even Shakespeare never made up an original story.
“But with The Boy Who Cried Wolf I have worked in a few twists so that audiences will turn up thinking that they know what they are getting but will come away surprised.”
Opening at the LBT in Huddersfield on December 12, the production is by the tutti frutti company, which was in residence at the theatre from 1994 to 2004 but is now based at York’s Theatre Royal.
Mike, a father-of-three who lives in York, is an award-winning prolific writer of theatre for young people, appearing in the Independent on Sunday’s Top Ten Living UK Playwrights list. A former teacher and actor, he says The Boy Who Cried Wolf showcases the many talents of tutti frutti’s performers.
“The story is told by a group of actor musicians who sing, dance, play instruments and act. I stand in awe of them,” he added.
In the tradition of fables and cautionary tales, the 2,500-year-old Aesop story does teach a lesson. But Mike says his script delivers the life lesson with humour as well as a few scary moments: “It’s about a boy who is a bit of a rubbish shepherd and it’s the story of him finding his inner wolf.
“When it was suggested that I might look at the story I thought it might be a bit finger-wagging, but there’s more to it than that.”
Mike is currently working on a new community performance in York about the birth of the railways and has previously written a number of adaptations of classic works, including Wind in the Willows, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Railway Children (for which he won an Olivier Award) and The Odyssey.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is directed by Wendy Harris, who has an extensive background in youth theatre, and will run until December 28.
Tickets are from £10 for children to £14, or £50 for a five-person family pass. Box office 01484 430528 www.thelbt.org
