I brought Panderella and Pandarita to watch the play “Goldilocks and Three Bears” or “金发姑娘和三只熊” by The Little Company. I last brought Giant Panda to watch this same play in 2015.

It was every bit as entertaining and engaging as I remembered it. I love bringing the little pandas to watch plays – there is just something about watching the live performances, and I used to buy the The Little Company’s season passes to watch all their performances.

Spoilers and review:

The play starts with a scene of the three bears, back facing the audience, and scratching their backsides in a comical manner, immediately eliciting laughter from the young audience. The scene then shows the bears getting wind of news that humans were about to build a road that cuts through their forest.

Much of the story follows the familiar storyline of Goldilocks finishing Baby Bear’s porridge, breaking his chair, and subsequently sleeping on his bed, but this play also introduces some environmental concepts such as why trees are being chopped down, and what wood is good for.

As with most children’s stories, it of course had a happy ending where the humans were able to find a different path and have their road build around the forest rather than through it, and everyone lived happily ever after.

The music was catchy, singing was clear, and easily understood by children. I also really loved the interactive elements where they get the audience to participate in yelling out the ingredients of making porridge, and “树倒地摇人快跑!” You could tell the children were really engaged in the story.

Perhaps even more entertaining for me was the fact that Pandarita sat in front of me, and I could observe her delightedly sitting on the edge of her seat, eagerly anticipating the arrival of the characters, and then every once in a while turn around to share her comments with me, while giggling every bit of the way.

I have watched many plays by The Little Company over the last 8 years or so, and both the little pandas and I do enjoy them. This is not an advertisement by any means, but the play is still running, and I do recommend it for your little ones.

You can read more about the play and get your tickets here.