'Anansi the Spider' review — this outdoor family show is a charming experience

Read our review of Anansi the Spider, now in performances at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre to 6 September.

Summary

• Anasi the Spider is playing at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
• The family show is aimed at audiences aged 4+
• It features three tales about the titular naughty spider

While the Jellicle Cats come out at night this August at Regent’s Park Open Air, the wily Anansi the Spider is up to his old tricks on the picnic lawn (still verdant due to its shady situation) outside the theatre during the day. Written by Justin Audibert and directed by Robin Belfield, this show, aimed at ages 4+ (it’s probably best suited to younger primary school-aged children), was originally produced by Unicorn Theatre and Birmingham Rep in 2025.

Believed to have originated in Ghana before spinning his web around West Africa and then “travelling” across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean, Anansi is no paragon. Rather, he’s an antihero we can admire for his cleverness, but his cunning can easily become connivance.

If some of the more detailed staging (as images of the original indoor production suggest) has been simplified for this more informal space, the charm of being out in nature is reasonable compensation. The lawn’s largest tree, which is decorated with green ribbons, features as the focal point around which the mischief takes place.

Comprising a trio of short pieces, the three performers – Cynthia Emeagi, Elizabeth Peace, and Becky Sanneh – all have the chance to be Anansi as well as various other characters. They're dressed in maroon tunics, trousers and headscarves, embellished with colourful fabric (designed by Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey). There’s no literal representation of Anansi as a spider; he’s more of a shapeshifting being who’s defined by his opportunistic personality.

The first piece is an origin story about the gaining of wisdom. Anansi tries to hoard the sky god’s gift in a jar and climb up a tree carrying it on his front when a little girl suggests that it would be easier on his back. He gives her short shrift but, of course, she’s right.

The second takes the form of a darkly comic fable, depicting Anansi at his most villainous. A famine is coming and Brother Snake suggests the animals work together to plant vegetables, but Anansi the individualist refuses to get involved. When hunger strikes, he returns to Snake with his tail between his eight legs and receives veg in exchange for a whipping at night. He’s happy for his guests to take the punishment and be bumped off in the process, putting them in his curry.

Thirdly, Anansi shows himself to be more immature than his young sons when he is invited to two parties taking place simultaneously, both with mouth-watering food offerings. He can’t choose one so he attaches himself to a rope, so the boys can pull him in either direction when the grub is served. He misses out on both feasts, and it serves him right.

The format of three short stories, threaded together with a catchy jingle by Duramaney Karama, is rather harder to get a grip on than an overarching narrative with momentum. Nevertheless, the young audience seemed engaged – and hopefully entertained without looking to Anansi as a role model.

Anansi the Spider is at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre to 6 September.

Photo credit: Anansi the Spider (Photos by Tyler Fayose)