It's true that I am child at heart. It's also true that for three hours this afternoon my head was back in childhood too. And it happy place. I was in our family's lounge room. It was winter. The fire in the fireplace was burning and the four children were sitting on the floor huddled around the big gold arm chair. My father was holding court reading from Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows. Dad loved that book. He loved sharing the tales of Toad of Toad Hall, Mole, Rat and Badger. We hung on every word. We begged him for just one more chapter when he said it was time for bed. Of course there is no actual going back but in my head there is still a little corner where Toad, Rat, Mole and Badger live. This afternoon in the packed Yeronga State High School auditorium, Villanova Players brought those characters out of those deep recesses. It was special watching the children (including the big ones like myself) in the audience also hang on every word. The production wasn't perfect - a big red pen dramatically reducing the length of the first act would have reaped great rewards - but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I loved listening to the children in the audience laugh, I loved listening to the adults laugh at the priceless reactions but mostly I loved the love for the story.
Applause for your applause. Great pictures.
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