Why does children’s theatre have such a bad name? One reason could be that not enough people know the work of Theatre-Rites. Headed by Sue Buckmaster, the London-based company has been devising outstanding live performances for family audiences since 1995. Its new touring show is one of the best times I’ve had in a theatre all year.

Mischief marks the first time that Theatre-Rites has collaborated with a choreographer, Arthur Pita. He, Buckmaster, the visual artist Sophia Clist, the lighting designer Guy Hoare, the composer and jaunty onstage musician Charlie Winston and seven disparate, utterly engaging actor-dancers have concocted an enormously playful and inquisitive show of such simple beauty and toe-curling delight that you want to share your sense of happiness and discovery by telling anyone within earshot about it afterwards.

Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells and the Dance Touring Partnership, Mischief lasts about 70 breezy minutes and is recommended for anyone over the age of 7. The piece follows no overt narrative. Rather, it’s an exploratory collage of sights, sounds, shapes, colours and actions bouncing against the working out of human relationships.

The cast interacts with each other and an array of Clist’s appealingly bright, versatile foam-rubber pieces. Long and thin, the latter hang like a magical forest or are curved and twisted into puppet figures of varying sizes. The manipulation of material is integrated into a stream of activity that embraces dance-based movement alongside sight gags and slapstick. Laura Cubitt, playing an endearing klutz, stands out, thanks to her expert and endlessly inventive routine with what looks like a sticky, oversized string of cooked spaghetti.

But then everyone involved in Mischief knows so well what he or she is doing that it seems right to deem the work touched by a kind of collective genius. No matter your age, it should leave you feeling stimulated, rib-tickled, lighter than when you walked in and glad to be alive.

Touring until Thur Nov 22, 2007. www.mischieftour.co.uk

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