Who doesn’t love a Christmas show, especially one performed by two of our favourite nursery rhyme characters, Nero the cat, who plays the fiddle, and Lazzo, a little dog who loves to laugh?
The show takes the form of a cabaret, set in a nightclub with a piano, which serves many different charming purposes and offers lots of amusing visual effects. The pitch-perfect design, including costumes, is by Imogen Melhuish with atmospheric lighting by Richard Flood.
The nightclub is run by friends Nero, played by the irrepressible, multi-talented Jeremy Bradfield, and Lazzo, played by the sprightly Hannah Goudie-Hunter. Goudie-Hunter is also one of the three members of production company Kitchen Zoo, the creator of this smart little show, directed by Bob Nicholson.
After an enthusiastic opening song and dance number, a problem arises with the arrival of the diva cow, an extravagant puppet, who is being difficult and demanding about almost everything she could be difficult about. As the star act brought in to jump over the moon, will it all work out?
So, to the other acts, Lazzo’s flea circus, skateboarding Humpty Dumpty, Mademoiselle Insy the spider and more. The characters are so well defined and easy to love! Things go wrong of course, but all is well in the end—go see it to find out!
Hey Diddle Diddle is a brilliant show, with a perfect nightclub setting, excellent dramaturgy by Brad McCormick, lots of clever props and the marvellous puppets. The energetic pace kept children and adults smiling and joining in, singing and even dancing! Most importantly it isn’t patronising; it’s a popping good, high-quality show and at 45 minutes is the perfect length for under-6s.
It runs at Northern Stage, stage 3 until 8 January mostly at 10:30AM and 1PM. All performances are relaxed and there are three BSL performances.