THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Corn Exchange, Dorchester

FOUR people playing a variety of musical instruments treat the audience to a fresh rendition of the well loved tale about life on the riverbank for a mole, a friendly rat, a thoughtful badger and an energetic and irrepressible toad.

Performed throughout in music and song, the lyrics, written by Chris Green, are ingenious and witty while Sophie Matthews, the principal singer and bagpipes player, gives a lovely rendering of Kenneth Grahame's story.

The evening began very well with the music consisting entirely of well known English folk melodies, well played by the instrumentalists and given fresh life by the lyrics that all four performers joined in as the story unfolded.

Additional interest was added by some unusual musical instruments such as the swarm and the nyckelharpa, a medieval form of the violin, which was played by Vicki Swan.

So far, so good. But as the story progresses, the same melodies linger on and on and even the most enthusiastic folk music lover is likely to become a little bored with hearing a tune repeated again and again, no matter how lovely the lyrics.

The end result was an interesting musical evening that was good but could have been better.

MARION COX