Time again for the frankest audience of all to test the ability of their theatre elders to engage  them in the special delight of staged story telling. On that score, this production would have to be rated a neatly crafted success, sharpening up the old story with bright characters and providing a suitably collaborative ending, so that Jack’s hastily appropriated treasure serves everyone, including the grisly giant with the lust for bones.

The Court team, under the inventive direction of Jon Pheloung, manage with three energetic actors, a simple picture book set and a few lighting effects to sustain audience imagination and gleeful participation for the whole piece. The key to success lies in the bold use of puppetry to drive the story through tricky action such as scaling the beanstalk, as well as the shrewd writing which picks up on lines and situations children know very well. (Big people read newspapers and don’t care for cartoons. Even when you try to do right, things go wrong. Tickling is a very useful weapon. And “Who did that?”) 

He’s a lively lad this Jack and the cow that must be sold to finance Mother Robinson’s bakery dream is an instant success as a quick thinking mime. Together with a colourful ogre they present very appealing characters bowling along at a merry pace. The moment everyone waits for, the revealing of the magic beanstalk adds to the fun with a fresh take on the extraordinary vegetable.

As Jack, Javier Jarquin establishes an easy rapport with his audience, filling the role with exuberant physicality.

Dan Bain is a delightfully lanky cow whose gender is a cause for cheerful speculation as his wonderful pink udder is considered alongside the fuzz of beard at the other end. His giant has a wonderful way with the “Fee fi fo fum” lark but is always more entertaining than scary. No frightened whimpers from this audience.

Completing the cast is the versatile Kathleen Burns (Mother and ideas person, sharp salesman and beanstalk persona).

Best of all is the clear enjoyment they bring to the story and their matter of fact treatment of bold moves and staging as if the imagination of their audience could be trusted to follow. As of course it does.
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