Right from the pre-set, Les Enfants Terribles create a visually striking and highly fantastical world of circus and carnival, where anything seems possible. We find ourselves looking at the entrance to an old fashioned circus tent, reminiscent of 1930s Spiegel-style construction, resplendent with signs and pictures promising delights within, and it quickly becomes apparent that the story and characters are just as colourful as the setting itself. The Mad Hatter-esque Dr. Longitude and his ensemble of performers take us on a journey to explain how they came to possess their menagerie of impossible creatures including the Bumble Wasp and the Tresillian Toad.

A heady mixture of puppetry, song, physical theatre and narration drives the show on at a relentless pace. The accomplished performances, and a vibrant design aesthetic that takes influences from steam punk and circus shows of yesteryear, provide enough material to fully absorb the many adults present at this children’s show.

The production makes clever use of many of the hallmarks of the genre, including inventive larger-than-life characters, all easily identifiable, whose delivery often mimics that of excitable children’s television presenters, and a simple and accessible plot complete with recapping songs that help to make sense of the story. These devices provide a hook for the imaginative and often crazily surreal ideas in the production to hang upon, and there are some wonderful moments of surprise involving visual imagery (the discovery of the ‘massive paw’ creature, represented in puppet form, is particularly well-pitched and hilarious) and interaction that keep the audience on our toes and fully engaged throughout. These moments are well-paced and judged, building to a climax which resolves the story effectively. This is a production with a very distinctive style; a huge imaginative mix of genres and performance types, handled with ease and skill. Extremely enjoyable.