Capital E’s The Farm at the End of the Road has been given a fresh lick of paint in a lively new production.

The key to the success of this latest version is the energy and sense of fun engendered by the talented cast of Carl Hayes, Charlotte Bradley, LeRoi Kippen and Maria Rose MacDonald who all play musical instruments, sing Laughton and Jenny Pattrick’s songs, and manipulate Sue Hill’s marvellous puppets.

Like Footrot Flats, the more unpleasant side of farming isn’t shovelled under the carpet so that at one point a rather cute lamb ends up as dinner, the ragamuffin sheep dog Buck gets a broken leg and Henrietta the hen is kept in a tiny cage (she does escape) and no one in the audience seemed to be affected.

First seen five years ago, this charming tale of Father Brown and his animals will certainly appeal to a new generation of kids who will be delighted with all the old characters such as the fast-breeding rabbits, the sheep being shorn, and the screeching opossums being sent back to Oz, but also with, if my memory hasn’t completely gone, the new character of the cow who is milked as if she were a water pump until Farmer Brown is shown a better way.
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The Farm at the End of the Road is an entertaining show for younger children. Using puppets by Sue Hill and music by Laughton and Jenny Pattrick, four performers tell the story of Farmer Mac, who is following the moon’s path to a little farm he can call his own, and a group of farm animals who find their way there also.

This show is dripping with talent – the puppets are beautifully made, and operated with flair and humour by the cast. The music suits the production perfectly, and is performed with skill. The national tour of this show and subsequent long run means that there is a far greater investment in production values than in most holiday shows so the costumes, puppets, sets, sound and light are all tight and have a real WOW factor.

The story is simple and well told, with lots of humour to appeal to the young ones.

There was however, very little opportunity for the little ones to participate. This is fine for some children who I suspect prefer to watch and enjoy rather than get involved (it would be a funny old world if we were all the same) but while the young one I took with me enjoyed it very much, she was not on the edge of her seat.

Don’t get me wrong, it really is funny. Watching a puppet chicken try to lay an egg, or a farmer try to milk a cow when he doesn’t know how, is very entertaining. His eventual success is even funnier, and quite messy. I particularly like the possums, who are evicted from the old farm house through hypnosis by torchlight, and sent back to Australia.

This is a safe, educationally sound choice for its stated demographic of 2-7 years.
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