When one finds oneself sitting dead centre of a theatre with a hundred happy, loud school children all around, one cannot help but find oneself cast back to one’s childhood. I have not been to see a show like Room on the Broom for quite some time and had some concern that I would not quite grasp the show as well as I might—nevertheless, the squawks, snickers, oohs and aahs of a much more forthright and much more discerning crowd made my job a great deal easier.

The show opens with a group of young campers setting-up for the night somewhere in England and I was surprised to note how gentle the opening was. The actors pad onto the stage and begin to set up, murmuring amongst themselves, not only allowing the young audience to gradually tune in but also providing some more subtle, wry humour to emerge, perhaps for the parents in the audience.

Soon, after a panic about a lost tent and a bout of very heavy snoring, the campers see something flying through the sky. . . and introduce us to the world of the witch and her cat, the latter far more put-together than the former. They are on their way to fight a dragon and we follow their journey.

There is, as one might expect in a children’s show, a colourful cast of anthropomorphised animals: as well as the cat, there is a dog, a bird and a frog. Each is imbued with a surprisingly real sense of distinction from the others, as they join the story one by one, helping the witch to find her lost items that she drops on her journey to fight the dragon. While there is no such clear conclusion of personal, moral gain as in The Wizard of Oz, there is a sense of synchronicity between the two shows though the familiarity serves the show well.

There are some lovely touches throughout the performance, not least the fact that the very mean, very hungry dragon is also very Welsh. The re-use of materials and colours (and, of course, actors) threads a motif throughout the show, implying a little blurring of fictionality and reality. This might all be a dream of one of the campers, or so it seems.

A good show, performed with an abundance of warmth, energy and love for the original material (Alex Scheffler and Julia Donaldson’s picture book) . ★★★☆☆     Will Amott     29/01/15 at Birmingham Rep