Photo by Amel Saleh
Why did the three little pigs build houses? Was the wolf really so mean?
The Three Little Pigs arrived at Moraine Valley on Thursday, February 16 at 10 a.m. in the Dorothy Menker Theater.
The story, which took a new spin on the classic tale, featured a Big Bad Wolf who wasn’t big and bad and wanting to eat the pigs, but was simply too powerful to play with them. Every character is portrayed in a jubilant manner. The wolf isn’t an enemy of the pigs but a friend. Even the wolf’s mother is a friend with the pig’s mother.
Instead of going straight into “these three pigs built these houses” the play took an interesting turn. In one scene, Mother Pig reads the piglets a bedtime story. One piglet becomes overly obsessed with the story and fantasizes about living in her own home at a mere 10 weeks old. She describes her dream home as “one with a white picket fence and a strong roof.” The other two piglets then become convinced they want their own homes, too. Each pig then describes the home of their desire, and you guessed it; one’s made out of straw, one sticks and the other bricks. Introducing the reason why they chose the material for their homes and including a mother figure into the story presented an interesting take on the classic tale.
Mother pays a visit to the wolf on the day of his birthday, which seemed like a pretty depressing day as he sat alone in front of a cake with one candle. He no longer speaks to the pigs because of some altercation the audience is unaware of. We find out the friendship was severed due to the wolf being too powerful to keep company. Mother pig teaches the wolf about being gentle and encourages him to patch things up.
When the wolf tries to visit the first pig, he can barely get his word across because the character is so worried about the wolf “breaking something.” The wolf becomes sensitive to this and seems to prepare to cry by a series of huffs and puffs. This blows down the pig’s house. I understand they didn’t want to promote violence to an audience full of children but I felt a better idea could have been used for the huffing and puffing.
The pigs and the wolf became friends again, thanks to the efforts of Mother Pig’s maternal nature. When there’s conflict, try to understand the other side rather than quickly shutting the person out of your life. It was a cute performance to put it in simple terms. A college student surrounded by second graders, I left with a valuable reminder of something that’s often forgotten in society: never judge a book by its cover.
