Fantastic Mr Fox

It is difficult to remain objective with a rat sitting on one’s head. The rodent in question, role-playing a lion and desperate to be loved, is a minor character in this enjoyable Roald Dahl adaptation. He and his puppeteer make one of the few forays into the audience of delighted young theatre-goers and, on this occasion, came to rest on your critic’s barnet.

This was, however, an unrepresentative moment in a charming, faithful version by Sarah Woods of Dahl’s countryside tale. For the most part the four talented puppeteers, who can also act and sing in tuneful rustic-funk harmony, keep to the stage to introduce the fox family and their enemies, the three unpleasant farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

Peter O’Rourke’s design involves a complicated collage of green and brown flats which are gradually dismantled to reveal the foxes’ den and to show the destruction wrought by the farmers’ diggers. Getting the sense of distance, above and below ground, is not easy; but director Steve Tiplady oversees imaginative solutions which contribute to this exciting story of pursuit, revenge – and eating. And, as ever at the Little Angel, the puppets have real character. When the children are told the farmers stink they are perfectly willing to believe it – and not above telling them so.

Dahl’s moral world is often open to question: isn’t the farmers’ motive, to protect their livelihood, uncomfortably close to Mr Fox’s need to survive? Our ginger hero is quite happy to kill chickens to feed his family, although – oddly – rabbits can be safely invited to the final celebratory feast to nibble on stolen carrots. But there is not much point in nitpicking: the triumphant theme of both book and play is that family love and co-operation can successfully outwit the most powerful opponents.

The play is about 90 minutes long (including a 15-minute loo break ostensibly for the benefit of the three fox cubs), but there is a shorter version, A Little Fox Tale, for two to five year-olds.

– Heather Neill