Quirk Theatre and Exeter Phoenix present The King With Donkey s Ears A Visual Story This is a visual resource for children and adults with Autistic Spectrum Conditions. The notes are designed so that you can use them as much or as little as you like in order to prepare for a visit to see The King With Donkey s Ears.
The Show The show will last 70 minutes, there is no interval. If you want to leave the auditorium at any time, you can. We will have a special area where you can go to relax, if you want to. The Set This is what the stage will look like when you enter the theatre. It has lots of tall yellow shapes. There won t be people on the stage when you first arrive they will appear when the play starts. The actors will use the different yellow shapes on the stage to help them tell the story.
The Characters The story has lots of different characters. You will see them all on the stage. Before the play starts, the actors will come out and introduce themselves. They will also tell you about the characters that they play. Each actor plays more than one character, but it s ok you can tell them apart by their different costumes.
What Happens The two royal guards want to know what is underneath the King s crown, he never takes it off, and even wears it to bed! The guards like to guess what the King is hiding under his big crown. The King tells us that he has a secret he has the ears of a donkey! He is so embarrassed about his ears that since he was a little boy, he has never taken his hat off or even had a haircut. He finds a bird living in his hair! The King decides it is time to have a haircut! Bob the Barber wants more customers. He tries out some new hairstyles on a passer- by.
Bob returns home to his wife Barbara. They receive a letter from the King the King is looking for a barber to cut his hair! The three musicians are very silly. They are practicing for the King s birthday party, but their songs aren t very good. Can you help them to write a song? Once the song is written, you can help them to sing it if you want to. The King wants to know that Bob is trustworthy before he lets him cut his hair and see what s under his hat. Bob passes the test and gets the job! So he cuts the King s hair. But he has to promise not to tell anybody that the King has donkey s ears. Bob wants to tell his wife the King s secret, but knows he will be in trouble if he does. His wife has a clever suggestion. She tells Bob to dig a hole in the forest, shout the secret inside, and bury it. Bob does this and feels much better. Where the secret is buried there grows a strange, whispering plant.
The silly musicians have lost all of their instruments! They look in the forest for something they can make new instruments from. They decide to make some instruments out of the strange, whispering bush. It s the King s birthday. When he arrives we can sing him Happy Birthday if you like. Then we can sing him the new song we wrote with the musicians. For the party finale, the musicians play their new instruments, but instead of music coming out, there is a strange whispering sound. It s the King s secret! Now everybody knows! The King is very angry and upset. Barbara helps the King to understand that he shouldn t be embarrassed. Everyone is different. She persuades him to take off his hat and we see that his ears are beautiful! The King realises that he doesn t have to be embarrassed, or worry about being different. He feels great to be himself!