The director of the Old Vic’s first family show says it is “zany, wacky and as light-hearted as possible” — but at its heart is a story about the environment.
The Lorax is inspired by Dr Seuss’s tale of a cantankerous creature on a mission to protect the earth from the Once-ler, a greedy businessman.
Director Max Webster told the Standard: “The relationship between business and the environment is one of the key questions of our time and ultimately it’s the question that’s going to affect young people.
“It seemed that making a show about the environment for children was a really good idea but rather than making anything preachy and serious we wanted to go the opposite way — something that was zany, wacky and as light-hearted as possible.
“So with a lot of pleasure and joy you get one of the most serious messages of our time. We had a lot of fun.”
The play is the third production in Matthew Warchus’s opening season as artistic director and opened last night.
The book was adapted by David Greig, who said: “We had to tell the story and find a way to make it have twists and turns.
“The way to do that seemed to not have a baddie and a goodie but to try and make it more complicated, so you feel as an audience you don’t know whose side you’re on. If I try and tell them what to think it would be very boring.” Simon Paisley Day, who plays the Once-ler, said the environmental aspect of the play was hugely important to him, adding: “Someone came the other night and said The Lorax should be required viewing for every child in Britain. It’s not a boring lecture about how we should save the environment — it’s a fun, quirky, rhyming, silly, daft, colourful, wonderful evening but it packs a great big punch and children will go away, I know, saying it changed their lives. I hope so.”
Tickets at £50 and £60 are half price for those aged 14 and under, apart from on Friday and Saturday evenings. Buy tickets for The Lorax here.
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