With holiday shows always be prepared for some the funniest moments to come from the audience rather than the stage.

One of the best from The Emperor’s New Clothes was when the King’s lackey asked in a plaintive voice, “Who’s going to wear grey on their wedding day?” “Not me!” declared a very emphatic young man who clearly wouldn’t be seen dead in grey.

Four small revolving screens and a long washing line of multi-coloured socks are all the set for The Emperor’s New Clothes which allows the story to be slickly told with Twins 1 (Neenah Dekkers-Reihana) and 2 (Catriona Tipene), Bruin the Bear, the Emperor’s intended bride, Princess Hyacinth, and the Emperor’s lackey, called Lackey (Maxwell Apse), who is forced to wear grey. 

Kenneth Robert Gaffney’s pompous, bullying, preening Emperor appears in one outrageous costume after another including a ‘goodygoodgumdrop’ cape for sartorial elegance before he appears in the (well almost) all-together.

The theme of the famous story is amusingly made and quickly understood.

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Obsession with fashion, fame and clothes in general remains deeply entrenched in our world so Sarah Delahunty’s take on The Emperor’s New Clothes is as relevant as it is entertaining. 

A couple of knockabout Twins – Catriona Tipene and Neenah Dekkers-Reihana – in ragged clothes set the theme by singing that they have no new clothes to wear but they’re still happy, they don’t care.

In total contrast, Emperor Bally McDragon (Kenneth Robert Gaffney) is obsessed with parading new clothes every day, requiring his drab, grey-clad lackey (Maxwell Apse) to announce each new outfit to the world. He will, as the publicity cleverly says, stop at nothing to feed his vanity. (Note: Bally rhymes with Sally, just in case you were worried …) 

The arrogant Emperor has also decided to marry Princess Hyacinth (Tipene), not that he’s bothered to ask her because he assumes any woman would be delighted to do so on the promise of having a brand new outfit every day. But all Hyacinth wants to do is hang out with Bruin the Bear (Dekkers-Reihana), who I take to be her favourite soft toy, with the independence, nevertheless, to worry about Hyacinth’s well-being and to contemplate a trip to Antarctica when a change of scene seems preferable.

It’s when the Emperor calls upon all the fashion-designers in town to compete for the honour of making his wedding outfit that the Twins conspire to give him his comeuppance, with the somewhat witless assistance of Lackey – who, of course, is in love with the Princess despite his lack of self esteem.

Much is made of how “unbelievable” the new clothes are. Oh, and if your memory of illustrated story book versions has you concerned about nudity, don’t worry: he parades in his undies, which in themselves are pretty flash.

While there are no gratuitous topical jokes for the adults, we do get to muse on the imperatives that cause the young audience to chorus “Yes!” when asked by Lackey if they just saw the plainly non-existent cloth and accoutrements with which the new clothes are to be made. After all these children live in a world where the imagination is highly valued. We can almost hear the young synapses connect as they process the finer points of the unfolding story.

Individually and as an ensemble, their focus firmly on progressing the well-wrought story, the buoyant cast engage with their target audience with a clear understanding of the task at hand. Rob Ormsby’s compositions, the multi-panelled set by Tony Ferrier and the cast, and the lighting design by Grace Morgan-Riddell, who also operates, aid and abet another excellent KidzStuff show. 

I’ve always liked to imagine how such productions will inspire the way kids play during the holidays. This time I also muse not only on the potential effects when children whine about wanting new clothes, but also when parents declare, “You’re not wearing that!” It’s got to be good when there’s a moral in it for the parents as well as the children.

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