The best children’s theatre delights and ignites the imagination of both kids and grown ups.  For the littlies it’s fresh and exciting, for big kids it’s a channel back into our own childhoods, however fleeting.  Both these school holiday shows – Which Witch is Which? and Tale of a Dog – work on both levels, though in quite different ways.   

Peter Wilson’s Tale of a Dog is a polished production with Brian King’s clever circus set and Susan Casey’s excellent costumes. There is some of the trademark Capital E puppetry with shadowy sheep jumping fences as Dog tries to get to sleep. But this is much more of a mini-circus with performers Angela Green and Thomas La Hood both doing some remarkable feats (trapeze and ball walking especially) with great aplomb. 

In this tale, the poor piano-playing Dalmation Dog is banished from the Dog Circus by the horrible Ring Master.  But she realises her mistake, brings him back, and they perform together – ultimately that’s what this is about, finding a way through your differences and co-operating.

A good message wrapped in an enchanting production.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Tale of a Dog is sophisticated circus mixing song, jokes, acrobatics, juggling, trapeze, puppetry, and unicycling as the simple story of Dog learning new tricks to keep his job in the circus is told.

Brian King’s design of a big top, complete with red velvet curtains and a trapeze frame, overlooked high above by a circling man-in-the-moon, is like an illustration from a stylish children’s book and so are Susan Casey’s costumes for Thomas La Hood’s appealing Dog and Angela Green’s bossy Ringmistress.

Deborah Pope’s movement choreography mixes humour into the genuine circus skills that La Hood and Green perform with skill in such a confined space, and the slapstick with a ladder kept the youngsters sitting near me laughing and giggling infectiously. In short, the show’s a delight.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

Once more Capital E writer/director Peter Wilson has collaborated with a highly talented creative team to develop a gem of a show, pitched at 2 to 7 year-olds but entertaining for all ages.

The all-seeing Moon – a white-suited Angela Green reclining in a high-hanging hoop – introduces the tale. A once-thriving circus is down to its last performing Dog (Thomas La Hood*), thanks to the insistence of the Ring Mistress (Angela Green in red this time) on sticking to the tricks they’ve been doing for 30-odd years: "No new tricks!"

But this Dog likes to play creatively, so variations and whole new tricks are inevitable. He loves innovation as much as he loves bones and his cosy kennel. Which spells trouble …

This core conflict becomes the context for a range of circus tricks that are all the more entertaining for being expressive elements in the story.

The Ring Mistress’s showbiz pizzazz is counter-balanced with an arrogant authoritarianism. She is the mistress, Dog is the servant.

Limited to dog noises only and physical actions, Dog nevertheless compels empathy as he communicates his full range of wants, needs and feelings.

Only when the Ring Mistress faces the fact that she needs the Dog, and enters into an equal partnership with him, is total closure avoided. And of course it is allowing new tricks to evolve that will ensure their circus has a healthy future.

The one bit that doesn’t work well is a shadow puppet dream sequence involving two sheep and a farm fence. Not only is its meaning obscure but also its physical position, at the side window of the kennel down stage right, makes it hard to see for most of the audience. But Capital E shows have long lives and I’m sure that issue will be resolved.

Brian King’s colourful ‘little-big-top’ set, lit by Jason Morphett, allows for a great range of circus skills to be played out, dramatically structured to build from simple ‘you too could do this’ tricks to gasp-inducing ones that require fitness and synchronicity in performance.

Enabled by Deborah Pope’s excellent movement choreography, enhanced by Stephen Gallagher’s original music and sound-scape (developed with Thomas Press), Angela Green and Thomas La Hood are a winning combination and Tale of a Dog is a high quality, delightful addition to Capital E’s excellent repertoire.

*[I need to declare that Thomas La Hood is my nephew and is therefore doomed never to gain any benefit from any doubt I might have about his work.]

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer