Written by Michael Rosen and performed at the Little Angel Puppet Theatre.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Tempest, Hackney poet and author, and former children’s laureate, Michael Rosen, has written 'The Magician’s Daughter'. The 40 minute production directed by Peter Glanville for the Little Angel Puppet Theatre, is a gentle introduction to Prospero’s island for the very young.

A combination of storytelling, song, magic, flying, and puppetry make for a charming, inspired flight of fancy. The script is rich with rhyme, the child’s intonation, much play on words and a gentle sprinkling of Italian in the dialogue.

Isabella is fed up with the endless rain; she just wishes the storm would end. ‘Rain, rain go away’ she chants, but ‘the rain is still raining’. Her mother Miranda tells her stories about a far away place where she once lived with Isabella’s magician grandfather. Isabella believes that if she can get to the island, find her grandfather’s magic staff and cast a spell, she will be able to halt the storm. On the island ‘can can Caliban’ and ‘bossy boots Ariel’ argue over the ‘fruity fruit’ that are too high in the tree for Caliban to reach, and the truffles down in the ground that Ariel cannot find. When ‘Izzie-belly’ and ‘Ca-li-ban’ reunite the two halves of Prospero’s broken magic staff, the island-bound creatures reach an understanding that they must work together and share the fruity fruit and the truffles, and Isabella awakes back home to find that the storm has ended. In many a fairy tale the gruesome elements from the source are reduced to charming stories, so it’s entirely in keeping with a tradition for the dark elements of Shakespeare’s Caliban to have no presence here.

Clare Rebekah Pointing and Lizzie Wort play Isabella and Miranda, creating a touching familial mother-daughter bond, moving between role-play, puppetry and music with ease. The singing magic staff deserves a special mention.

Bryony Hegarty

For children ages 3+

Runs until 10 July

Box Office 020 7226 1787

www.littleangeltheatre.com