The Magic Trumpet: A Musical Comedy for Children and Others

David E. Kemp is a drama professor at Queen’s University and the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

The Magic Trumpet is firmly in the tradition of the kind of classic children’s entertainment represented in the past by such shows as The Wizard of Oz. As a play it is bright, lively, and uncomplicated, with its songs skilfully integrated into the whole in the best tradition of the musical theatre. The young audience is easily able to identify with the characters, who are drawn in bold strokes of black and white. Simon Small, the play’s young hero, presents a figure whose quest to achieve a just and happy world for himself and his friends has a message for us all.

In their Introduction the authors voice a concern that the young have difficulty in finding true happiness when they are constantly under the authority of those who seem not to realise what true happiness is. This theme is explored in the story: the children of Grindstone are lured to the Forbidden Forest by the evil Magic Maestro the Magician; they are saved from the dire fate of being changed into wild circus animals by a talking tree, a magic trumpet, and the aforementioned Simon Small, who rescues them with his courage, kind smile, and happy heart.

Judged by the standards of fully participational Theatre in Education, The Magic Trumpet may seem to be rather old-fashioned and lacking in emotional depth. The authors, Victor Cowie and Victor Davies, however, know what a child audience will respond to, and The Magic Trumpet is both hugely entertaining and mercifully free of moralising.

For adult groups wishing to present a children’s entertainment, The Magic Trumpet makes an excellent choice.