Interview: Playwright Piers Torday on THE WIND IN THE WILTON’S at Wilton’s Music Hall

A brand-new adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s much loved The Wind in the Willows by award-winning children’s author Piers Torday (The Last Wild series) comes to Wilton’s Music Hall this Christmas. We spoke to Piers about creating this new version of a much loved tale.

The Wind in the Willows has been adapted for the stage many times over the decades. What do you think makes audiences love this story so much and what made you want to adapt this hugely beloved story?

Partly I think it’s because it’s still a story many parents read to their children (because their parents read it to them) and for many, like me, these colourful animals and their joyful adventures are some of our first reading memories. 

But more than that, it’s the friendship at the heart of the book. Each animal is flawed -  shy, stubborn, reclusive, boastful – but their love for each other is steadfast regardless. It’s a story about how we love friends for their faults as much as their qualities, and that is an eternal story worth hearing again and again, no matter what age you are.

Can you tell us a little bit about your ideas behind The Wind in the Wilton's and how you went about writing an adaptation?

I went back to the original text and re-read it and re-read it, highlighting my favourite quotes and also the passages I thought were most well-known (Mole spring cleaning, Rat’s picnic, Toad’s motor car and so on). 

Then, because the book is so episodic, director Elizabeth Freestone and I worked hard to give it a dramatic structure. In the original, Christmas happens halfway through – madness! So our version follows the four seasons, which sounds obvious, but it’s actually so integral to the environmental themes and setting of the story.

Finally, we decided to update it to the Thames in modern London, and make Rat and Badger female-identifying, as well as ditch all the Edwardian period tropes because – fun though they are, this story has been adapted with bright waistcoats and police uniforms way too many times. This is full of heart but also speaks to life today, from the city to climate.

You have a wealth of experience in writing children's books. How did you first get into writing and when did you first realise you could make a full-time career out of it?

I started off in theatre as a programmer (The Pleasance), and then became a producer on the fringe and Off-West End, before moving into TV. I spent over a decade helping other people tell their stories, and then one summer had a sudden yearning to tell my own. I booked myself onto an Arvon writing course and began a story about a boy who could talk to animals and not people.

It took me four years to get it right for submission, and a further three years after that book – The Last Wild – was published, to go completely full-time. I write books, short stories, and articles, as well as a Christmas show a year, plus teaching creative writing to adults and children. It’s a portfolio career and I love it because although it’s crazy busy, every day is different.

How does the process of writing for the stage differ from writing a book?

It’s a lot less work (for me!) In a book, the writer is also the director, every actor, designer, lighting designer…you have to invent and write every setting, every prop, as well as all the dialogue…so I love switching between the two.  After pages of prose, it is a joy to write mainly dialogue and tell a story theatrically. And writing is solitary. It gives me so much pleasure to write a book, to create and control a whole fictional world - but the chance to escape my study at the end of every year and get to work with some brilliant creatives, solving problems and generating ideas I would never have thought of in a million years is just too tempting to resist! And theatre was my original work family, I’m always glad to go back.

You've also co-written music for the show. Can you give us a little insight into the songwriting process?

The book is actually full of songs, so we started there, incorporating the ones that fitted our version, like the classic ‘Uptails All’ and then I wrote some of my own, with composer Chris Warner. Wilton’s is an intimate, organic, authentic space so a full-blown musical score was not on the cards, the sound alone would be overwhelming. Instead, our inspiration was closer to the riverbank, the rural world of the story. Folk gigs in pubs, festivals in fields, travelling one-man bands and singers –  that is the vibe we went for. A play with songs where almost anything can be an instrument…

What can audiences expect from this festive production at Wilton's Music Hall?

A super league cast, familiar to audiences of Shakespeare’s Globe or The Bush. Another magical, stunning set from Tom Piper (Tower of London poppies). Astonishing puppets from Samuel Wyer (The Ocean at the End of the Lane). Songs, dance and adventure. A joyful, funny, exciting, heart-warming end to another crazy year….come and join us on the river. There may just be a picnic or two…

The Wind in the Wilton’s plays at Wilton’s Music Hall from 24 November-31 December, with tickets available here.