Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Gone With the Wind

Coming across a mole or a rat in your basement is one thing; on the stage is different matter. The anthropomorphic characters of Scottish writer Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, published in 1908, have lasting appeal: “We can sort of see ourselves in each of these characters,” explains director Eileen Corcoran. She was inspired to piece together the Little City Players’ original adaptation after hearing the tag line for Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Small Boat Festival — “Messing About in Boats,” a phrase taken from Grahame’s novel. The LCP production sticks to the tale’s classic feel, with a storybook-style set design that features an actual rowboat crossing the stage, and costumes with subtle animal traits. (Badger, for example, sports a tweed jacket and gray-striped hair.) Revisit these childhood friends at the Vergennes Opera House this week.