Kids ready for fantastic Mr Fox

THESE kids were having fun dressing up as foxes and trees—and rehearsing to take part in a professional musical with a touring opera company.

The youngsters were at Whitechapel’s Toynbee Hall at the weekend, learning their parts for the English Touring Opera’s production of ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’.

It is being performed at the Hackney Empire on March 10, tickets �10-�32.

Tobias Picker’s musical is based on Roald Dahl’s famous story of the sinister machinations of the farmers as they do battle with a family of foxes, written for children and adults alike.

The cast line up includes Fiona Kimm as Agnes the Digger, an insatiable machine, and Nicholas Merryweather as the eponymous hero. Other characters include the philosophical and tipsy Rita the Rat and the villain Mr Bunce.

The opera company works creatively with a large number of primary schools.

Fantastic Mr Fox has roles for children as fox cubs and as a chorus of trees, so in each venue two local schools take part in the performance itself.