TERRIFIC, RADIANT, AND HUMBLE

An age-appropriate exploration of death
and the life-saving power of words

Based on E. B. White’s beloved children’s book of the same title and adapted by Joseph Robinette, the staged version of Charlotte’s Web offers many points of entry for children. Themes of friendship, death, persistence, problem-solving, and diversity all play a role in the story. Under the deft direction of Ilyse Robbins, the current production at Wheelock Family Theatre opens the way to all these themes, with plenty of excellent entertainment and humor for children of many ages and their adult companions.

Anna Slate and Malik Mitchell

Malik Mitchell is Wilbur, the baby runt of a pig saved from slaughter by young Fern (Anna AK Kovaz). Mitchell, an adult man, portrays the innocent joy of a baby pig as he squeals and rolls around on the stage, delighting in his slop, growing bigger and bigger, naively unaware of the fate that awaits him until the gruff-voiced Sheep (David Jiles, Jr.) explains why pigs are fattened up. Fern steps in again to convince her father (Janelle Grace) to spare Wilbur’s life; this time he is sent to live on Mr. Zuckerman’s farm.

Cast of Charlotte’s Web

There Wilbur meets a variety of barnyard friends. Tader Shipley and Janelle Grace are Goose and Gander, waddling and squabbling and repetitively gabbing to add a light touch to the show. Templeton the Rat (Lisa Tucker) is the “Rick Blaine” (as in Casablanca) of the show, not exactly a villain, but problematic because he is oblivious to Wilbur’s fate and only concerned about himself.

Lisa Tucker and Malik Mitchell

Despite his selfish cynicism, Templeton is co-opted by Charlotte the Spider, played with wise sensitivity by Anna Slate. Charlotte needs Templeton’s ability to leave the barnyard and fetch scraps of paper with words to guide her project of weaving words into her web. Charlotte wants those words—terrific, radiant, and humble—to alert Mr. Zuckerman and other human beings as to Wilbur’s stellar qualities. Slate is masterful at manipulating her many “legs” as she weaves the words into her web.

Sophia Baramidze’s costumes contribute to the success of Slate’s depiction, as well as to the transformation of the other actors into barnyard animals. Isaak Olson’s lighting design portrays the rhythm of days on a farm and ensures that the words in the web are visible, and Shelley Barish’s scenic design—a simple but functional barn with the needed beams, pens, and troughs—grounds the whole thing into a world of its own, a complex and yet comforting world of co-existing farm animals. A dozen or so baby spiders and a handful of goslings offer a rotating cast of local children a chance to appear on stage.

Eventually, the attention Charlotte wins for Wilbur will save his life, but at significant cost to Charlotte herself. The concept of sacrifice might be beyond the reach of some youthful audience members, but they will grasp the emotional nature of the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte, even as the humorous animal sounds and movements keep them entertained.

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photos by Benjamin Rose

Charlotte’s Web
Wheelock Family Theatre
Boston University Fenway Campus, 200 The Riverway
ends on April 26, 2026
for tickets, visit Wheelock

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston

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BIO: Lynne Weiss is a member of the Boston Theater Critics Association. Her work has also appeared in Literary Ladies Guide and in The Common, Black Warrior Review, and the Ploughshares Blog. She has an MFA from UMass Amherst and has received residencies from Yaddo, the Millay Colony, and Vermont Studio Center and grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. A lifelong social justice activist, she is at work on a novel set in 1930s Cornwall. Her reviews, travel tales, and progressively optimistic opinions are on her substack.