The Terrible Infants, Udder Place, Brighton, until May 20

2:11pm Monday 19th May 2008

There's more than a passing nod to Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected in this deliciously dark vaudevillian production.

Tilly tells tales so tall that an old crone confesses she'll come a cropper, which she does becoming troubled by her own tall tail; down her dress it dangles, escaping to cavort and carry out nocturnal nastiness, resisting removal till Tilly turns and trots out of town.

Alliteration is hard to get right but this cast alliterate with a panache and style that will have linguists in raptures. One-by-one a collection of children have their unpleasant traits and habits played out with gleeful spite amid rhyming couplets that beautifully conjure up the playground antics of the under-eights.

The cast malevolently interweave each tale delving into their meta-phoric magician's bag of tricks for colourful props and beautifully-crafted marionettes along the way.

Tom listens to his tum, more than his mum, eventually swallowing his mum to sate his tum - inevitably it goes horribly wrong. Tom's tum - a pink parasol perfectly in keeping with the context of the show - screams "I WANT SWEETS" in a deep growling rumble getting louder as it (ergo pink umbrella) and greedy demands grow, dwarfing his papier-mache head and chomping, cavernous mouth.

Beatrice, loves to chat - blather, blather, chitter-chatter - on and on creating a non-stop buzz, attracting bees which encase her head in a hive, filling it with honey. Those of a nervous disposition should be warned, bears are particularly partial to a dab of honey...

Narrated by the delectably disapproving tones of Dame Judi Dench, who delivers the right amount of gravitas, Bea's sticky ending is accompanied (as are all the terrible tales) by an accomplished assortment of live instruments that this musically talented cast appears able to play at will.

Mix puppetry, singing, dancing, creative scene changing and competitive on-stage one-upmanship with just the right amount of pathos and you've got a rare gem of a show; even the ongoing noise from the generator - my only minor quibble - can't diminish the sheer ebullience of this tremendously talented troupe.

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