![Scott Suchman
In \"The Wind in the Willows,\" a headstrong Toad with a lot of money and a short attention span gets in trouble because of his recklessness. From left Vaughn Irving as Ratty, Christopher Wilson as Mole, Doug Wilder as Badger and Sasha Olinick as Toad.](/storyimage/PN/20110727/ENTERTAINMENT/707279983/AR/0/AR-707279983.jpg "Scott Suchman
In \\"The Wind in the Willows,\\" a headstrong Toad with a lot of money and a short attention span gets in trouble because of his recklessness. From left Vaughn Irving as Ratty, Christopher Wilson as Mole, Doug Wilder as Badger and Sasha Olinick as Toad.")
The phrase “Too much of a good thing” is unfamiliar to Toad, the central character of Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows.” Played by Sasha Olinick in the adaptation currently on the Imagination Stage, Toad is a rich playboy who lavishly spends on whatever craze strikes his fancy. Typically, his enthusiasm has disastrous results, among them crashed caravans, motorboats and hospital visits.
Janet Stanford, Imagination Stage’s artistic director and the show’s director, says the extravagant Toad and many of the animals in “The Wind in the Willows” are commentaries on Grahame’s Edwardian era contemporaries.
“They’re literal animals, but they’re very much British gentlemen who happen to be animals, and the play reflects a lot more about … people,” Stanford says. “It’s total anthropomorphism. They’re called Ratty and Mole and Badger, but they are based on archetypes.”
“The Wind in the Willows,” which runs at the Bethesda theater through Aug. 14, is told from the perspective of Mole, played by Christopher Wilson. Although Mole finds Toad entertaining when they first meet, he becomes wary of his new friend’s recklessness.
Stanford selected Olinick for the lead role because of his comedic timing and willingness to go over the top.
“He’s got this incredibly mobile face,” she says. “He’ll go anywhere and be very expressive.”
Stanford, who grew up in England, has been a fan of the 1908 book since childhood. Upon its release, she says, the book gained popularity because it was one of the first to feature talking animals. The story became an international hit with several radio and film adaptations, including a 1949 Disney treatment called “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.”
To create the right 20th century look for the show, Stanford enlisted costume designer Katie Touart, who referenced images from the time in costume design books. As the story is told through the eyes of an animal, Touart says Stanford wanted the humans in the production to seem otherworldly.
“There were really two polar opposites of characters in this show,” Touart says. “There are the humans who appear more in the second act: the judges, the barge woman, the policeman, the jailer’s daughter. Janet wanted those to read more as ‘the other.’ She wanted them to be scarier.”
To achieve this, Touart recreated some of the time’s most outlandish attire, including the puffy, white wigs and formal robes judges wore. She also experimented with the era’s apparent fascination with large hats, one of which she molded on a wedding cake. She also made a driving hat from the period that she describes as a beekeeper-like ensemble with only the eyes exposed.
Nature was an important theme in the animals’ designs, and Touart included several hints suggesting a forest setting.
“There are leaves everywhere,” she says. “There are three costumes actually there are more than three costumes, but Toad shows up in a lily pad jacket.”
Toad’s trousers also resemble reptilian skin, and tails are “suggested” on the costumes worn by Ratty and Rabbit. Rabbit’s apparel is based on a 1909 bicycle outfit.
For Badger, Touart created the subtle face of the creature on his cap in an alternating black and white pattern. His clothes are also a nod to the past.
“The cut of Badger’s suit is actually a Norfolk suit,” Touart says. “It was popularized by the Duke of Norfolk, but it became a gentleman’s hunting attire and since badgers were hunted, it’s a lovely little irony.”
The director and the costume designer didn’t walk the fine line between human and animal alone. The actors also were encouraged to incorporate small, easy to identify as animal behaviors into their performances. In addition to his toad-like jumps, Olinick uses his voice to suggest amphibian nuances.
“Toad is a pretty emotional guy as he is written the book,” he says. “When he gets upset about something, he bursts into tears so I sort of worked this sob into more of a croak.”
At the same time he was rehearsing for “Willows” in the summer, Olinick was closing out his role as the title character in Round House Theatre’s production of “Amadeus.” Grahame’s story and the Austrian composer were more than a century apart, but Olinick found connections between his characters.
“What was useful about Mozart, at least when he was written in that play, is he is very childish, very self-centered. So I had already kind of been indulging in what parts of me are like that, in creating a character. And I think some of that worked its way into Toad,” he says.
While not a major factor in the story, there is a sense of classes clashing between the upper crust represented by Badger, Mole and Toad, and the lower, the weasels and stoats. While the former speak with very proper British accents, the weasels and stoats have cockney accents.
Matthew Schleigh, who plays Chief Weasel, read the book while researching his role and says it has something for both old and young readers.
“I was very much impressed at how adult a lot of it is,” he says. “I guess a lot of great children’s books don’t play down to kids, but try to bring them up to us.”
Schleigh, who returns to Imagination Stage for the first time since his 2008 performance in “Looking for Roberto Clemente,” describes his character as a charming vaudevillian and a smooth talker. He, too, incorporated some characteristic animal behaviors in Chief Weasel.
“Weasels have this very kind of quickened [movement],” he says. “They’re looking at everything.”
The characters in the production may have the bodies of animals, but “The Wind in the Willows” shows how wild their human tendencies can be.
tforhecz@gazette.net
“The Wind in the Willows” runs at Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda through Aug. 14. Shows start at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1:30 and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with additional 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. shows on the schedule available on Imagination Stage’s website. Tickets range from $10 to $22. Call 301-280-1660 or visit www.imaginationstage.org.
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