Post event review : THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA Live on stage! (May 19th to 21st)

Post event update

We had a early start to the weekend with ABA’s Productions The Tiger Who Came to Tea. The younger kids have been waiting for the show the whole week. I have been reading to them on recent nights and they loved the story through and through.

The show was exactly how I remembered it when I caught it with big C some years back. In fact the cast has been doing the show for many years around the world and I do hope that you have caught it over the weekend.

The cast who stole the show is none other that the Tiger. All the kids were so excited when the Tiger came to the stage. They were all so captivated by the antics and movements of the Tiger (which is something we cannot get through the book). The audiences were also taught a song or two and a dance move too. The songs were all so catchy and easy to sing along. It was one great show with a simple story line that was perfect for my pre-schoolers. Even my 23 month old who is normally fidgety when watching show, gave his complete attention when the tiger was on stage and was so sad when the tiger left the stage.

As part of the show this time, ABA Productions had organized a special workshop followed by a meet and greet of the cast of The Tiger who came to Tea. Big C and small J were invited to attend the 1.5 hours session which is a mix of art and craft and dramatization workshop.

We were back the following day for the workshop which was held on Saturday which was a great follow-up to the show. The first half hour of the workshop, the kids partake in making a tiger out of brown paper bags. It was followed by dramatization workshop whereby the kids will imitate, imagine, act and mimic, etc.

In the middle of the workshop, the cast of The Tiger came to tea came out to meet the excited kids for a quick group photo.

As the final segment to the workshop, they even had a dance number to the tunes and lyrics of Kate Perry’s Roar ! How cool! I do hope that ABA Productions will run similar workshops tie-up going forward as it is great introduction to the world of drama and theatre . This also make the children’s theatre-going experience even more fulfilling than being mere audience. Thank you ABA Productions for making the kids’ weekend ti-ger-rific!

Pre event blog

Truth to be told, this is not the first time that I am watching this. Many years ago, I have watched the same production with big C. If my memory didn’t fail me she was probably around 3 years old and she became “Sophie” many days after watching the production. I had the book ever since big J’s time as it was one of the first books I bought for the home library. Of course, the home library grew as the kids got older and the younger siblings came along. This lovely book by Judith Kerr sort of got lost in the rack of books and I never really gotten around to reading this to the younger 2 boys

I enjoyed this story very much, so did the older kids when they were younger (I will make sure I dig out the book for the younger boys bedtime reading tonight) It is a very relatable story, not that we have tigers knocking at our door. The younger kids is able to relate to tigers and innocence of Sophie wanting to be the best host for her visitor despite being BIG and atypical !

I am so glad that this live production is back in Singapore and is written and directed by David Wood OBE. He is undisputedly the UK’s leading writer and director of plays and musicals for children. His many successes include Shaun the Sheep, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Gingerbread Man, The BFG, The Witches, Meg and Mog, Spot and Bebe the Sheep Pig.

The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her mummy are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they certainly don’t expect to see at the door is a big, stripy tiger!