I Want My Hat Back review: National Theatre’s production of beloved children’s book sends kids wild
National Theatre | ★★★★★
So there’s this bear, right, and he’s got an amazing hat. All red and pointy and with an elastic strap to keep it nice and secure on his big bear head. Where did the hat come from? It doesn’t matter. What matters is where it goes. Because shortly after the bear falls asleep, his hat is stolen by a goofy rabbit of questionable moral standing. And for the rest of this gut-punchingly adorable kids’ show, every child in the room screams this at the oblivious bear.
“THE RABBIT HAS YOUR HAT!” shrieks a five year old boy as the confused bear begins his investigation. He encounters a bouncing fox, and asks if she’s seen his hat. “THE RABBIT HAS IT!” interrupts a small girl, with little consideration for the tenets of theatre. Frustration begins to take hold. The crowd could turn nasty at any point.
When the bear meets the rabbit, who is unsuccessfully cross-examined while actually wearing the hat, the children could barely contain their agitation. “HE’S WEARING IT!” screams one observant kid, before throwing up her arms in disbelief. “Oh my god,” I see her mouth to her mother, “oh my god”.
The National Theatre’s magical production of the bear-loses-hat children’s book drove these kids utterly ballistic with joy, sadness and, at one point, existential musing on the fragility of life in the forest.
An infectiously expressive and energetic performance start to end, I Want My Hat Back triumphs in making a room full of young children sit relatively still for five minutes shy of a full hour. An unmitigated success, then.