“They’re best friends if anyone else intrudes,” their loving grandmother confides, “But much of the time they really do fight like cat and dog!”  Which, of course, makes my guests, brothers Oliver (7) and Harry (5), the perfect target audience for Dan Bain’s latest school holiday charmer, Cat vs Dog.

Their mother has the boys well in hand, however, and it’s hard to believe they could be anything like the aggressive pets on stage, who are competing furiously for the attentions of kindly old Grandma.  Gran succeeds in allotting Cat and Dog equal patting rights, but as soon as she leaves the room or nods off, it is all-out war. 

Having previously reviewed Bain’s delicious A Paintbox Full of Clowns, I know what to expect: no words at all, just marvellously inventive movement to bouncy music and amusing sound effects.  (Though again I find myself wishing the music was live: where is Danny Still when you need him?) Without words, the play is more comical and cartoon-like, while the message, about getting along together, has more subtlety, and yet reaches even the stroppiest of quarrelsome siblings. 

Grandma is gorgeous (think Ross from Friends in a grey wig), played with a mischievous twinkle and more than a hint of five o’clock shadow by Hamish Parkinson.  With his waddling walk, red knitting and cup of tea, he is a perfect quaint old lady, permitting the kids a giggle at his awkwardly short frock, slightly caught up to reveal old-fashioned knickers.

When I was small I innocently believed that all dogs were boys, cats were girls, and they married to produce kittens and puppies.  This production does nothing to change my view of their gender: though both are played by females, the kids around me are referring to the dog as he and the cat as she.  

The actors have developed their different animal movement patterns skilfully.  Lucy Porter as a lovely, cuddly Dog is clumsy and greedy, initially no match for wily, slinky Cat (svelte Angela Hegarty) who provokes him at every turn.  But of course once he is established as the underdog (!) the audience delights in his efforts to even the score, whimsically recorded on a flashing electronic scoreboard cranked up from behind Grandma’s chair.  

Competition must become co-operation when Cat’s antics with a ball of wool trip up poor Grandma and leave her unconscious.  How will creatures whose vocabulary is limited to miaow and woof get help?  Bain and his cast come up with even more thrilling ideas than the youthful audience can offer and, with a little not too high-tech help from Andrew Todd and George Wallace, the climax is carried off triumphantly. 

Bain is master of the children’s theatre genre and knows just how to enchant his audience.  The kids are all completely engaged, seemingly having no trouble in thinking anthropomorphically.  I hear one pair of small mates arguing about which of their own pets is smarter, cat or dog. The actors involve us in a casual, unthreatening way, encouraging us to miaow and woof along with them, and once sending a ball into the auditorium which is caught, to Oliver and Harry’s great delight, by their pretty blonde mum. 

Nothing compares to quality children’s theatre for giving life lessons in a palatable way.  Oliver’s favourite part is when the dog gets his head stuck inside a balloon, but wee Harry, with a hopeful glance at his big brother, says he likes best (Spoiler Alert!) “the part at the end, when they were friends.”  Mum too looks like she really hopes that particular message is going to stick.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

If only tit-for-tat events in the family could all be as much fun and end as happily as this one. Dan Bain has now brought several inventive physical theatre stories to life for children’s holiday audiences at The Court and this latest tops them all in my book. A child seated near me who had no English at all understood and relished the whole story.

Mainly relying on mime and attitude, there are nonetheless some telling variations on the woof woof / miaow theme as well as fun sound effects and some inventive props. The ‘message’ when it comes is just what the young audience understood and wanted at the opening performance, arriving at just the right time for concentration spans to remain untested.

Dog arrives first, in comfortably rumpled back and white fur – a bit Footrot Flats, but also very like a large version of the soft toy beloved of many a youngster. For some reason, perhaps the general contours of the beast as well as its boisterous antics prompt me to think of it as ‘he’.

Next, the Grandma arrives, herself comfortably proportioned, to settle in the cosy armchair behind ‘him’, with tea and knitting. Peace reigns until Cat – a svelte and spiky-fingered feline (must be ‘she’) – slinks out of a box and the competition for Grandma’s attention begins. 

From there it’s all go. Sometimes Grandma is out of the room, in which case Cat and Dog both stand up, the better to carry out their confrontational teasing. Grandma back, they are once again the picture of docile content. Scores are kept on a nifty light -up board which pulls up from the back of the chair and the audience is invited to endorse each point as it is achieved. 

The accident happens as happen it must, when Cat’s play with the knitting wool trips poor Gran and she is Out Cold. What to do? Audience suggestions, unsolicited but generously given, are very funny. Most seem to know about dialling 111 and asking for an ambulance, but it is up to Cat and Dog to cope with the consequences of not having the gift of spoken language.

Their shared solution is stunning and it would be a pity to reveal it here. Enough to say that it is highly imaginative and visually charming. 

Gran does make the hospital and she does come back to a co-operatively tidied sitting room. The only snag for Cat and Dog lies in the new pet she brings to share the harmony. This again deserves to be seen as a surprise. 

The physical control and timing called for are demanding, even though the audience is very willing to lend imagination to the illusions created. Amy Straker as Grandma, Lucy Porter as Dog and Monique Clark as Cat are all nimbleness and flexibility. 

Supported by a strong creative team, they will brighten the day for young comers and prompt many a chuckle from their minders. Perhaps the model offered for domestic harmony may even extend, at least temporarily, to the home scene.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer