FourTails Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Lost In The Willows, by Christine Foster.

Loss and loneliness stalked Kenneth Grahame, the author of The Wind in The Willows.

He claimed he had only enjoyed one brief period in his life: his carefree childhood on the banks of the Thames. He becomes a reluctant adult struggling with a soul destroying job, an unstable wife and a troubled and disabled child. But it is Kenneth Grahame’s obsession with childhood that finally leads to the greatest tragedy of his life.

This play’s action flows freely through Grahame’s memories in soliloquies and extracts from his letters. He loved nature and once said he preferred places to people, but while his stubborn belief in the innocence of rural tranquillity creates a gift of literature for an admiring world it ultimately destroys his own family.

The Wind in the Willows has not been out of print since it was published. Kenneth Grahame’s reverence for rural comradeship is timeless, but it could not save the author himself.

Written by award-winning playwright Christine Foster (‘Four Thieves Vinegar’, ‘Off the Map’) and directed by Margot Jobbins (‘Four Thieves Vinegar’, ‘Mayhem at the Cabaret Voltaire’). Starring Neil James (‘God of Carnage’), Abi McLoughlin (‘Confessional’), Robert Cohen (‘The Trials of Harvey Matusow’) and Laura Fausner (‘The Railway Children’).

Lost in the Willows is the second collaboration between Margot Jobbins and Christine Foster. As part of Brighton Fringe 2019, FourTails Theatre Company presented Christine’s Four Thieves Vinegar, a production receiving multiple 4-* and 5-* reviews and chosen as one of Fringe Encore’s three “Top Picks” of Fringe 2019.

100 Minutes plus 15 minutes interval.

Suitability: 12+ (adult themes)