Young children are not the sort of audience who will give a performance the benefit of the doubt, especially two days after Christmas, when there are lots of new toys to play with at home. But as The Little Lost Frog’s audience of three to six year olds and accompanying adults collectively find their way through a dark tunnel to the second scene of this three-scene promenade performance, there is no doubt about it: everyone is mesmerised. Children hold hands to help each other find somewhere to sit, parents keep an eye out for each other’s toddlers, and adults and children alike peer around a wonderland of twinkling lights. An astonishing quiet falls on an audience that only moments before were excitedly joining in with ‘he’s behind you’-style slapstick comedy in the twee kitchen of Mrs Cupcake and her naughty cat Cookie.

This intimate, participatory show carefully manages its young audience’s mood and its older audience’s expectations, involving everyone in a quest to create a rainbow, restore the Fairy Godmother’s stolen magic, and ultimately return the Little Lost Frog to his home in time for Christmas. In Chatham, a town where the main Christmas entertainment is a successful commercial pantomime, I suspect that the introductory kitchen scene is more to set the parents at ease than the children. Though the jokes, songs, costumes and scenery here are neither surprising nor adventurous, the scene works, allowing everyone to find their bearings in the space and to feel safe with the size of the crowd and the characters involved.

The show starts to impress at the transition into the second scene, set in a forest clearing. A very likeable Little Lost Frog (Mark Conway) is in reality quite big and happily reassuring, gently encouraging children to join in with the dancing where appropriate, and explaining the show’s conventions when necessary. His rapport with a beautiful, glittering, ballet-dancing Christmas Wish (Nina Atkinson) strikes a perfect balance – she communicates through dance and gesture, explaining what we need to do next in our quest, and Frog encourages the audience to interpret what she is telling us. Sweet music and low lighting complement Chris Steven’s fantastic forest of wicker trees and keep the excitement gently bubbling. Children are invited to summon light for the rainbow, each collecting a little battery-powered fairylight to put into the Christmas Wish’s basket. Encouraged by well trained, subtle stewards, adults continue joining in if their children need help.

The third scene of the performance follows a similar convention. We all carefully move to another part of the theatre space to a ‘river bank’, where, impressively, not one child steps onto the blue plastic sheet down the middle of the space that represents the river – though a few of the older children enjoy hopping on the stepping stones. Tensions rise when a mildly threatening puppet Sprite appears, but with the help of the Christmas Wish we decide to be friends with him, and the expected success of our mission is punctuated by a heartwarming rainbow – an archway made of coloured Chinese lanterns. Children hop happily under the rainbow to collect a sticker and meet the Frog in the foyer, and the excited buzz there is thoughtful, engaged and responsive to the story that’s just been shared.