Toad of City Hall ... Mayor inspires free show by river

Role model: Paul Critoph will play Toad in a production of Kenneth Grahame’s tale
12 April 2012

He is a bit of a fop and a lovable rogue. So he was the obvious model for the lead character in a new production of Toad Of Toad Hall set a stone's throw from City Hall.

Paul Critoph is taking more than a little inspiration from Boris Johnson as he prepares to play Kenneth Grahame's much-loved amphibian, with the Greater London Authority building standing in for his family seat.

Producer Suzanna Rosenthal said: "We couldn't resist Toad with a hint of Boris. We're remaining true to Grahame's original but we found that the irrepressible character of Toad particularly funny given where we were staging it — under the Mayor's window."

Mr Johnson has been invited to the production, one of two free open-air shows from the Steam Industry Free Theatre company, based at the Scoop amphitheatre in the More London complex. The other show is Don Juan in Love.

The season, which runs from Thursdays to Sundays from August 5 to September 5, is funded by local businesses and estate managers.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in