Kids

The moistly lugubrious tunnel-dweller created by Raymond Briggs has gone all rock 'n' roll for the festive season in a collaboration from Pilot Theatre Company and artsdepot which allows Fungus and family reveal their more frivolous side for the benefit of us dry cleaners (surface dwellers). Making much of the Bogeyman's predilection for bodily functions and excrescences, the stage adaptation works revolting attributes into a sweeter plot, conveying a jaunty tone rather lacking in the brilliantly putrid picturebook. The cast are a talented bunch, and they move assuredly into frequent song and dance numbers, employing drums, steel pans, electric guitar, trumpets and powerful vocal chords to deliver numbers like Bogey Wonderland, You'd Better Stink and Blame it on the Bogey. They're all wired up to microphones, though, and the resultant noise levels at times have you thinking wistfully about Raymond Briggs' assertion that Bogeydom is a muffled, whispering land.

It works for the children however, if the fact they all came out singing the Bogey song at the tops of their voices ('pick it, stick it, roll it, flick it') is anything to go by. Age 4+.