Skip to main content
theatre review

The 2015 stage adaptation of The Lorax by David Greig with songs by Charlie Fink is playing the Royal Alexexandra Theatre fresh from a recent London remount.Manuel Harlan/The Globe and Mail

The Lorax, Dr. Seuss's cautionary fable about the dangers of destroying our environment in the interests of making a profit, was first published in 1971. Sadly, today it seems more pertinent than ever. In fact, given a certain U.S. president's desire to claw back environmental protection and enable corporate greed, the Lorax's message feels far more urgent this holiday season than that of his better-known Seussian cousin, the Grinch.

No better time, then, for the arrival in Toronto of the acclaimed British musical version from the Old Vic. This delightful 2015 adaptation by David Greig with songs by Charlie Fink, playing the Royal Alex fresh from a recent London remount, is both hugely entertaining and surprisingly powerful. I say surprisingly because, even if you know the story all too well – like my eight-year-old daughter who, thanks to Netflix, has seen the 2012 animated film umpteen times – this retelling has shading and nuance behind its vivid colours and bouncy verse.

Greig, the Scottish playwright whose Midsummer was seen in Toronto at the Tarragon a season ago, deftly mimics Seuss's signature rhyming couplets as he expands the original story of the Once-ler, the inventor-turned-tycoon who would make a fortune at the expense of chopping down a forest, and his nemesis the Lorax, that feisty little creature with the big walrus mustache who "speaks for the trees." The Once-ler (played with disarming affability by a green-haired Simon Paisley Day) has discovered that the silky foliage of the Truffula tree can be knitted into an all-purpose consumer item he dubs a "Thneed." But as soon as he takes an axe to his first Truffula, up pops the Lorax to scold him. The Truffula, he points out, is integral to the Edenic valley upon which the Once-ler has stumbled, part of a delicate ecosystem that includes the Swomee-Swans, Humming-Fishes and bearish Brown Bar-ba-loots.

Eventually, though, the Once-ler persuades the Lorax to reluctantly let a small section of the forest be harvested for Thneeds. It's the first step down a slippery slope as the Once-ler himself is coaxed away from his good intentions by cunning lawyers and his growing greed, leading to dire consequences for the ecology and eventually to his own undoing.

This tragic tale (with a silver lining) is couched in classic Seussian whimsy, joyfully captured in director Max Webster's fun-for-all-ages production. The sets by Rob Howell evoke Seuss's distinctively quirky artwork, from the fluffy Truffulas to the serpentine, smog-belching contraption that manufactures the Thneeds. And there are puppets galore – designed with raggedy charm by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell – from the swooping Swomee-Swans to the cuddly orange Lorax, plaintively voiced by David Ricardo-Pearce, who operates him along with fellow puppeteers Laura Caldow and Ben Thompson.

Fink, erstwhile front man for indie pop-rock band Noah and the Whale, furnishes witty songs in an array of styles, from folk to dance pop to soul, including a raucous heavy-metal number when the Once-ler unleashes his new tree-chopping machine – a hatchet-equipped Harley chopper – which comes off like a sly nod to that other British musical in town, Bat Out of Hell.

This is also the American Seuss delivered with a distinctive British accent – both literally, in the case of the terrific Old Vic cast, and thematically, in the show's portrayal of the Once-ler as a poor working-class lad made good, who turns the Truffula paradise into a grim factory town out of the Industrial Age.

Regardless, it's a story that speaks to all of us. When the Once-ler blithely tears up his contract with the Lorax, it could well be the breaking of an Indigenous treaty. And should we feel too confident that this Thneed-peddling CEO is the villain of the piece, he's given a number in which he admits to the negative effects of relentless "biggering" (i.e., progress) – but then ticks off a list of the conveniences we consumers would have to give up. It reminds us that in The Lorax, Dr. Seuss wasn't just attacking irresponsible capitalism, but also the complacency that allows it to thrive.

The Lorax continues to Jan. 21 (mirvish.com).

Interact with The Globe