Pirate Gran (Tour – Watford)

Scamp must surely be one of the most inventive companies presenting theatre for very young children. The youngsters love the shows, and there's enough going on visually to keep the grown-ups intrigued.

Scamp's latest touring production, in association with Watford's Palace Theatre, is Pirate Gran. This feisty elderly lady is the printed-page creation of Geraldine Durrant and Rose Forshall; her living-room is full of memorabilia from her sea-faring days – and she keeps a very large crocodile as a pet.

Far away on Palm Tree Island, the Olympics of the pirate world are about to take place. Will Pirate Gran enter, perhaps for the last time, and scoop all the gold medals going? Well, what do you think?

The cast of four ensure that we're all rooting for her by the time Gran and her crew reach the island and Gran can display her sporting prowess.

What is particularly clever about Peter Lawman's production, as well as Benji Bower's catchy score, is the way in which James Lewis' designs draw on the audience's imaginative powers. A tablecloth becomes a sail, the top of a coffee table transforms into the ship's wheel, the back of an armchair is first a cooker and then a fridge, and so on.

The crocodile is a segmented puppet, sufficiently scary – those teeth! that tail! – yet conveying its own odd sense of reassurance. When it goes through a dressage routine or comes first in a steeplechase, it all seems perfectly natural. Though getting up close to a croc in the zoo is still probably not the best of moves …

Bower's opening number is a foot-tapping affair and there's a marvellous sequence during the storm at sea when Gran soothes her crew's night terrors. The three grandchildren/crew-members dance, sing and play some unusual instruments.

It lasts just long enough – about an hour – for even nursery-school age children to want it to go on. Just for a little bit longer, please.

Pirate Gran runs at the Palace Theatre, Watford until 30 March then tours nationally until 31 May.