The Great Big Enormous Turnip

The Great Big Enormous Turnip Story Line

The Great Big Enormous Turnip was first performed in 1981 by a small mixed group of apprentice level performers for a schools’ tour. All the characters in the story were written into the play, each with his or her own song, and the show was much enjoyed by nursery and reception classes.

Subsequently the songs became a key part of the repertory of Theatre Peckham’s youngest Musical Theatre pupils, and had a second run in the old Havil Street theatre with an eight to twelve year old cast. The next outing was with Musical Theatre 2 Class, who did a short run of the piece with an added chorus of yokels known as ‘Turnaps’. This required the cast to acquire some pretty unlikely Mummerset accents. Not what you’d think a cast of children from the urban heart of Peckham would respond to, but the result was hilarious, and the cast hugely enjoyed the bizarre change in the way they sounded- revelatory.

The piece has group songs and short, accessible solos and dialogue for all the story’s characters, and cast numbers can vary from eight to twenty eight – the second version was made for a class around the larger number. The Storyteller role can be played by an adult or a teenage girl or boy. The Turnip itself is played by a young girl dancer in a crinoline style dress which makes the shape of the turnip. She usually looks quite beautiful rather than like a real turnip.