What do we expect of the theatre that now appears each holiday season, mostly written specifically for that season and for the young fry in need of an outing? The formula seems to be take a fairy tale and reframe it for a small cast, add some bouncy music, lots of colour, whatever audience participation can be contrived and fit it all into forty five minutes. Perhaps the magic of suspended disbelief is being engendered and an appetite for live performance with it.

The Court’s current offering scores well, partly because it does away with most of the language and uses strong physicality to present the action, and the action itself is neatly structured to avoid the padded feeling many a children’s show relies on to tease out the time.

Melanie Camp’s direction sets a cheery mood and then cracks things along a mostly entertaining path. 

This involves a hungry and expansively Italian chef chasing an equally expressive chicken around the auditorium before he applies himself to a recipe for gingerbread, bringing us back to the chicken, for eggs. The milk problem is solved when a very girly cow sashays through the audience, and in no time the oven is in service in spite of repeated attempts by a fox character to steal whatever he can lay hands on. 

Once the wonderful gingerbread man takes the stage there has to be more chasing. Every child in the audience knows what to say, it seems. Then there’s a river crossing on the fox’s back and the consequent repair job; more baking, needed to restore his head and arms before time’s up; and all that remains is to meet the three actors in the foyer. 

They work hard in this show, with quick changes and nicely detailed costumes from Annie Graham. Tom Trevella is in his element as an engagingly optimistic chef, while Dan Allan capers about most nimbly as the biscuit and Kathleen Burns completes a versatile cast efficiently. 

The set is adapted conveniently from the kitchen used for the main bill, The Slapdash Assassin, and a musical component from Hamish Oliver underscores proceedings with a light touch.

Children seem to enjoy, above all, a good chase and plenty of ‘look behind you’ bits. This neat version of the old favourite has plenty of both and its overall appeal is assured. 

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