James and the Giant Peach

Cast and crew photo from spring 2022 Hesston College production of James and the Giant Peach

program

Director’s Notes

With his books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Fantastic Mr. Fox and countless others, Roald Dahl shared zany stories of adventure and fun, but they all had deeper, valuable lessons, and James and the Giant Peach is no different. The moment he ventures inside this wildly overgrown peach, James also begins to grow in the knowledge that he deserves to be loved for all that he is. He is brave and kind. He is lonely and hurting. It takes a loving ladybug, a spunky spider, a gentle grasshopper, a worried worm and even a cynical centipede to show James that a genuine family should come together when things get hard and find joy in each other when life is going “fan-tas-ma-rifically”! The stage adaptation is somewhat different from the book, but the storyline and the main characters in all their graciousness and gruesomeness are very much here. And so are you, and that makes us happy because, “a little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men” [and women].

Enjoy the show- R. Jantzi

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