OH, how refreshing; a Christmas entertainment based on children's fables which is free from double entendres, the repetitious mugging of television game show "catch-phrases", and hosts of would-be Shirley Temples. Add to that the plus of a cross-dressed Scots heroine/hero as genteel and as feisty as you can wish your favourite aunt had been and you have what must be the most engaging show in the city.
Into the enchanted wood, where David Wood's text for There Was An Old Woman has stranded Old "Mother" Shipton and her 12 orphans, wandering with a circus led by a whimsical conjuror who flunked his magician's finals. The huge shoe they live in is all that was left by the giant who - having whisked away village and parents, is bound to come back for his missing left boot. Unless The Great Boon can magic him down to manageable size.
It says a great deal for David McFetridge's sensitive direction and for the sheer charm of Dan Gordon's twin-set and sensible shoes Mother Shipton that there is never a moment of terror in the storyline; and that such is the equation of equality established across the footlights then even this cynical old critic found himself holding hands with Cocky the capon, singing along with the magical spells.
The sleight of hand and fire-eating - under the tutelage of Paul McEneaney - plus the circus skills of the hordes of unassuming children acquired from Paula McFetridge of the Belfast Community Circus School - coupled with Sylvan Baker's deceptively simple choreography and Stuart Marshall's toytown setting compound to make this an evening of delights.
