Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of escorting year 3/4 to The Anvil Theatre in Basingstoke to take part in the production of ‘The Selfish Giant’.  We had been practising the songs from the show for several weeks and the children had really enjoyed learning them.  Some of the children had noted that there seemed to be a theme running through the songs and we were all becoming quite intrigued to see what the performance would involve!

On the day we arrived at the theatre, along with around ten other schools from all over Hampshire.  We were soon warming up our voices with a very jovial lady, who explained that along with our voices there would be a choir from one of the local senior schools and some children actually performing during the performance.  It soon became apparent the songs were part of a story based on a short story by Oscar Wild of the same name, all about a giant who returns from a long holiday and finds children playing in his garden.  He is so cross he builds a tall wall around his beautiful garden and as a result Spring never returns.  That is until he meets a little boy in his garden that needs his help and then he realises how lonely he has become.  So he invites the local children back into his garden to play and eventually Summer returns.

The children behaved amazingly well throughout and really enjoyed singing the songs that we had learnt.  We all became riveted to the performance and watched in awe as the children who acted and danced and depicted the children visiting the garden and the beautiful fruit trees. 

All in all, we all thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I was very proud that our children sang so beautifully, I was especially impressed with Kaiden and Harrison from my class who were pitch perfect!  We also had the pleasure of seeing the lady who had composed the production who was there with us watching the show.  All in all a wonderful afternoon and experience!

Mrs Byrne