The London Visitor Guide

A stage adaptation of Michael Rosen’s We’re Going On A Bear Hunt is to play a season of daytime performances at the Duchess theatre this summer, from 9 July to 16 August.

Rosen’s award-winning 1989 children’s picture book has been adapted for the stage by director Sally Cookson, with  a score by Benji Bower. The show, suitable for children aged three and over, follows a family’s excitement as they wade, splash and squelch through a variety of imaginative environments in search of a bear. Designer Katie Sykes uses a host of everyday objects to draw young theatregoers into an imaginary world.

Author, poet and broadcaster Rosen has written over 140 books, many of them for children. He was appointed Children’s Laureate in 2007.

Cookson staged We’re Going On A Bear Hunt at Bristol Old Vic and has previously collaborated with Sykes and Bower on productions of The Ugly Duckling, Aesop’s Fables and Papa Please Get The Moon For Me.

We’re Going On A Bear Hunt plays at the Duchess theatre concurrently with evening performances of Ronald Harwood’s Taking Sides and Collaboration, also announced this week. This is the second time that the Duchess has presented a daytime show for children, following The Gruffalo, which played over the Christmas season.

A woman who unexpectedly went into labour and gave birth on the Tube is only the second person to have a baby on London Underground.

Julia Kowalska was travelling with her sister on a Jubilee line train when her waters broke.

She got off the train at Kingsbury Station, north-west London, but could not make it any further and went into labour on the platform to the astonishment of other passengers.

Station supervisor Sebastian Rebello told how he responded to a distress alarm to discover Ms Kowalska about to give birth.

He said: “I got a call from Wembley Park about a woman with stomach pains, but it was only when I reached the platform that I found out she was expecting.

“I just kept holding her hand to try to reassure her. I was a bit anxious, I just wanted the ambulance to get there as soon as possible.”

Paramedics arrived at about 9pm on 19 December to find Ms Kowalska was too far into her labour to be taken to hospital.

She was taken to the station supervisor’s office where she gave birth to a healthy girl just 35 minutes after calling for help.

The mother and baby were taken to Northwick Park Hospital. A Brent council spokesman said the authority had met Ms Kowalska, who is homeless, and was assessing her circumstances to establish what assistance it might provide.

A spokesman said: “A further meeting will take place this week.”

Transport For London said the only other recorded birth on the network was when Marie Cordery was born at Elephant and Castle station in 1924.
 

Rashid Razaq, London Evening Standard 02/01/09

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