Synopsis

Show
The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch
Dates
1st March - 5th August
Runtime
45 minutes approx
Mrs Grinling
Nicola Sangster
Mr Grinling
Gareth Cooper
Suitable for ages 3+ and their families
The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch
The first in Pied Piper's new strand of work 'Story in a Suitcase;, for small studio theatres, festivals and libraries.

Music...Mayhem...Mustard!

Packed with live music, audience participation, and all the sights and sounds of the sea this much loved story is brought to life for children aged 3+, their friends and families.

Join us for an all new musical storytelling extravaganza to celebrate 40 years of Ronda and David Armitage's The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch.

For lighthouse keeper, Mr Grinling, lunch is the highlight of the day. But Mr Grinling isn't the only one who enjoys the delicious food. Some greedy seagulls keep stealing his lunch! Can Mr and Mrs Grinling come up with a plan to stop them?

'What could stop the seagulls pecking?
Stop them eating up my lunch?
My delicious food they're wrecking
As they gobble, crunch, and munch!'

The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch - Trailer

Trailer for ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ at The Omnibus with Nicola Sangster and Mrs Grinling and Gareth Cooper as Mr Grinling. Video by James Fox and edited by James Eaton.

Nicola Sangster
Nicola Sangster
Mrs Grinling

Nicola has created 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' along with Gareth Cooper. Together they have written the songs and devised the production.

Nicola Sangster is the freelance Associate Director for Pied Piper, where she has worked with Tina since 2005.

Nicola studied Drama and English Literature at Royal Holloway and trained at Birmingham School of Acting.

Her work includes Cider with Rosie (Cheltenham Everyman)The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare's Globe), Silk (BBC), Earthquakes in London (National Theatre / Headlong), Vincent in Brixton (Original Theatre), Charlotte's Web (Watershed). For Pied Piper Nicola was part of the original UK and Singapore casts of Laura's Star.

Gareth Cooper
Gareth Cooper
Mr Grinling

Gareth is a writer and performer, specializing in musical comedy. He spent five years writing and performing with award-winning, critically-acclaimed sketch group, Delete the Banjax (“Daft, deft and hugely inventive” Independent), and now splits his time between acting, writing and stand-up. Gareth wrote the music for The Hunting of the Snark, most recently at the Sherman Theatre. 

Hare & Tortoise "a show full of warmth and charm" - The Stage
★★★★

There are currently no reviews of The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch, but here's a review from a previous production...

Following the success of Pied Piper Theatre’s Burglar Bill last year, this new two hander for very young children follows a similar format. There is little dialogue in Hare and Tortoise, lots of physicality and gentle joking, a neat narrative shape and some catchy songs. And it all sits very happily in the Yvonne Arnaud’s child-friendly studio space.

Catherine Chapman’s designs – flowers, snow, carrots, russet leaves, and more – underpin the seasonal progression, once Tortoise has emerged from hibernation and we await the famous race.

Ebony Feare is a deliciously charismatic tortoise, languorous with an impressive range of reptilian faces and stances and a resonant singing voice. Stefan Stuart’s ever impatient hare, more boyish than leporine, makes for an appropriately lively contrast despite his weaker singing voice.

Tuneful songs and accompanying music range from folk to Mozart, with lots of violin and piano in the backing; the show makes entertaining live use of Feare’s steel pan skills too.

Like most of Tina Williams’ work for the company she founded 30 years ago, Hare and Tortoise is a show full of warmth and charm, which at the opening performance had the school party of five and six year olds, which constituted most of the audience, engaged, gasping and laughing.