grüffelocover"A gruffalo! Why, didn't you know? He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws."

In a big, dark wood lives a small mouse. And there also live some other animals who would love to eat the mouse: the owl, the fox or the snake. But the mouse is smart and knows how to help herself. She invents the Gruffalo – a monster with terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.… So when the mouse tells the other animals about the Gruffalo, they are afraid and flee from her. Luckily, the monster does not really exist because the mouse just invented it…But suddenly she really stands in front of a monster that looks exactly like the Gruffalo. And now, the mouse indeed is in trouble because his favorite meal is ‘little mouse on bread’. But the quick-witted mouse is not intimidated and even scares the big, strong Gruffalo…

"The Gruffalo" is a modern tale in which the bravery of the small ones conquers their fear of the big ones. Published in 1999, "The Gruffalo" became one of the most successful children’s books of Great-Britain and is already perceived as a modern classic. The rhymes and ideas of Julia Donaldson and the lovely drawings of Axel Scheffler won "The Gruffalo" several prizes, amongst them the British ‘Nestlé Children's Book Prize’. It was translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 10 Million times.

tallstories_logo_100About the production
The British theatre company Tall Stories has staged "The Gruffalo" for the first time already in 2001. Since then, the company has toured through Great Britain and has given guest performances in the USA, in Canada, Asia, Australia and Poland. More than one Million viewers have already seen "The Gruffalo".

In a co-production wit Tall Stories, the Junges Theater Bonn now stages "The Gruffalo" as a musical play. Toby Mitchell, joint artistic director of Tall Stories is going to direct the play.

Toby Mitchell studied Modern Languages at Cambridge University and also Advanced Theatre Practice at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He worked as a French teacher and as an editor at Macmillan Children’s Books. Together with Olivia Jacobs, he is co-founder and joint artistic director of Tall Stories.