It’s not just fluffy bunnies – here comes the dark side of Beatrix Potter

A puppet musical show co-written by Alan Ayckbourn will bring out the villainy in a nursery classic as part of celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of Potter’s birth

Beatrix Potter’s bucolic tales about bunny rabbits, hedgehogs and puddleducks will be celebrated across Britain this summer as the country marks 150 years since the writer and illustrator’s birth. But now an unexpected literary ally, the playwright Alan Ayckbourn, has signed up to help ensure that the darker side of Potter’s enduring imaginative world is not forgotten.

The revered dramatist is writing the lyrics for a new children’s show called Where’s Peter Rabbit? that will star puppets, like the hit stage shows War Horse and The Lion King, and he is aiming to avoid sugary sentiment as he tackles these favourites of the nursery bookshelf.

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