The Unicorn plays a valuable role in introducing young audiences to theatre; with this Japanese mini-season it goes farther, offering a taste of an aesthetic and a dramatic tradition that many children, not to mention their parents, may never have encountered. Of the two pieces on offer, the collaboration of Kazenoko, Japan’s leading children’s theatre company, with the Australian puppeteer Peter Wilson is by far the better; the second, a Unicorn commission written by Mike Kenny, needs more clarity and momentum. But both feature visual loveliness and a potent sense of ritual.

Hello Maru-Chan, for audiences aged 4 and above, is elegant, witty and warm-hearted wordless storytelling. On an all-white set of sliding screens, little Maru-Chan awakes to a bright new morning. Fluffy paper clouds drift overhead; paper birds soar, paper butterflies flutter and huge paper blooms cascade to the ground. Three deft performers and an array of rod puppets and origami creations that change shape before our eyes lead us on a dreamlike journey.

There’s a storm and a flood; there are fish, a possum and a giant turtle. There’s even a doll’s house that opens up to reveal a miniature version of Maru-Chan’s bedroom, where a devouring fire breaks out, dangerously licking at this fragile paper world. Finally, in an unexpected burst of rainbow colour, the child is reunited with her serene mother. It’s touching, delicate and entirely gorgeous.

Sadly, The Twin Stars shares neither its effective narrative economy, nor its consistently graceful execution. Directed by Tony Graham for the oversixes, it’s inspired by Kenji Miyazawa, the writer, teacher, geologist and social reformer who died, aged just 37, in 1933. Miyazawa’s children’s stories are much loved in Japan, but little known elsewhere, and Kenny only sketchily conveys their appeal.

The young Kenji, unhappily employed in his father’s pawnshop, is haunted by the mischievous ghost of his dead sister, who encourages him to pursue his writerly ambitions. But themes of duty and desire, and Kenji’s concern for his poverty-stricken customers, become tangled with the garbled relating of his fantastical tales of celestial adventure.

There’s too little action and too much talk, and the puppetry is rather lumbering. Skeins of shiny silk and a skyful of prettily twinkling stars supply the most striking stage imagery; it’s in simplicity that these two plays are strongest.

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