The stripy t-shirt wearing, variously lipsticked or mustashioed cast of puppetry show Rabbits, Ladders and Stars in Jars start their piece with five minutes of laughter, grunts and vocal gymnastics - as well as the odd word of French. They bump into each other and giggle, make a meal of putting on their white shoes, attempt to speak with self importance but cant, and romp around the stage. It seems rather a strange preamble to the tale of Cecilia the spider and her star-gazer friend Nelson the rabbit who returns a fallen star to its rightful place in the sky. Yet, the casts bumbling personae turn out to be those of the storytellers they play - and such personae come in handy when Nelsons jar accidentally falls onto the floor; the event is met by a oooh and a non, non, non! rather than any mortified look from the actor who should have caught it. A different and presumably intended mishap is also covered by the storytellers: narration describes how Nelson hangs his jar on a tree - the prop tree is missing, so after a little kerfuffle the branch is formed by an actors hand.This is the attraction of Rabbits, Ladders and Stars in Jars - it is a little rough around the edges in this first performance, but it seems to intend to be so, and is all the more charming for it. Four actors gather around adorable Nelson to puppeteer him; sometimes they stumble over each other in the small space, and the idea Nelsons a real rabbit is at moments lost as his legs dangle in mid-air when they shouldnt. But, the piece is full of beautifully crafted moments which make up for such niggles. One such is when the storytellers explain that 'all rabbits have hobbies'; their hands around Nelsons, they drop jigsaws and paint brushes in dismissal - Nelson instead has liked reading about stars from the age of five. We see a miniature rabbit enjoying a miniature book whilst wrapped up in a tiny star-patterned coverlet, and we then see the grown up Nelson tucked up in bed reading the full sized book. Nelsons climbing of a stick ladder up to his high shelf and then to the stars is another endearing highlight of the pieces puppeteering. A fitting, unobtrustive soundtrack of looped electric guitar strains adds to the shows appeal.Odd niggles do make an impression. For example, Nelson and Cecilia are voiced by all members of the ensemble at various times, and there are discrepancies; some actors seem to forget her usually flamboyantly posh vocal tone.As this is a childrens show, however, the last words must go to one of the young audience members , most of whom seemed captivated by the piece. One piped up as the actors cleared away: 'that was nice!'. And it was just that.
