Herbie Treehead's Mixed-up Fairytales - Free

Rarely, if ever, have I laughed so much at a children’s show as at Herbie Treehead’s frenetic, rollickingly funny and chucklingly amusing quasi-surreal romp through much-loved fairy tales. What is most important, all the children were in absolute stitches – and always on the edge of their seats for more.

From re-arranging the audience “so all the little people can see”, and opening his “biggest pop-up book in the world” to reveal a model house, galleon and castle, to the tumultuous ‘Happy, Smiley Song’ finale, this Newcastle-born, now West Country-based stand-up comic (mixed accent and wild hair heighten his appeal) offers an ever-inventive, delightfully chaotic, fast-moving one-man show – with some effectively slow mini-sequences – capturing the youthful imagination.

A Maisie-mouse Cinderella mopping on one leg meets the Fairy Godmother in a furry
rabbit costume and entertains a feline-looking Dick Whittington with a Yorkshire accent. Owl and Pussy Cat, disguised as Dinosaur and Kangaroo, go to sea in a dark brown ship – everyone making sea noises is one of Herbie’s many successful all join in sequences. Puppet pigs, Sleeping Beauty with a crocodile mother, and a turtle talking sadly, join a cavalcade of engaging characters brought to life in this cleverly constructed, often hilarious, nonsense tradition show with maximum audience involvement.