It takes real maturity and confidence to make a show like Theatre-Rites’ Beasty Baby. Although aimed at three- to six-year-olds, it never hurries. Set in a wintery landscape, it is muted, quietly contemplative and smiley rather than laugh-out-loud funny.
Beasty Baby plays to the fact that theatre is a communal experience, and it operates as a comedy of recognition – as if an unspoken secret is being disclosed. It’s multilayered, which means that parents will get as much out of it as children. (I’d like to have heard some of the conversations families had on the way home about a show that celebrates the disruptions of a new baby, yet recognises how difficult the little monsters can be.)
The premise is simple: a new baby is born in a log house in the middle of a forest. The connotation is of fairytales, but also of the wild child in the woods. This baby is, as all children are, a beauty and a beast. What new parent hasn’t marvelled at the protective love they feel towards their newborn, and then been shocked by their temporary murderous feelings towards the same child a couple years later?
Beasty Baby is like one of those fast-motion films of a plant growing: as the baby develops from a compliant little bundle into a tiny tyrant, it reminds us that being a parent (or brother or sister) is joyous and great fun, but also exhausting and frustrating. A great deal of the success and pleasure of the play comes from the puppet baby, which is manipulated and voiced with exquisite skill by Siân Kidd.
There are plenty of bright, flashy shows out there for this age group, but this low-key, truthful and touching hour is a genuinely shared experience for the whole family.
• At Polka theatre, London, until 3 January 2016. Box office: 020-8543 4888.
