Snowed In, The Place — a delightfully inventive Christmas show for kids

Anatomical: Snowed In

The Place Theatre, London

It’s 10.30 in the morning. A very small, very chatty six-year-old is kicking the back of my seat. Meanwhile, the nice lady in charge of The Place’s schools matinee has just announced that the theatre has a strict no-shushing policy. So far, so ghastly (or so I thought) but Snowed In, Anatomical’s four-person Christmas show, proved an absolute delight: funny, engaging and weighing in at a fidget-proof 60 minutes.

Snowed In’s performers kept their audience gripped from the start. The story, told in a mix of speech and movement, is simple but involving: four friends imagine being snowbound in a luxury hotel and run riot through the rooms and lifts and corridors. Will Holt’s minimal set — giant Alpine postcards and a mini-ziggurat of carpeted stairs — easily evokes both indoor and outdoor settings, aided by Chris Swain’s cleverly zoned lighting. Gareth Ellis Williams’s soundtrack is a nutty mix of yodelling polkas and elevator jazz plus a blast of the BBC’s old Ski Sunday theme when the fearless foursome mime a bobsleigh ride down the hotel laundry chute.

Writer/directors Anna Williams and Tom Roden have packed a fair amount of dance into the hour but both are clearly hyper-aware of their audience’s boredom threshold. Tots weaned on TV dance competitions know to whoop when spring-driven Lisa Chearles Ming Huey slides into the splits, but the ensembles are leavened with plenty of very clever, very silly audience participation.

When Andy Gardiner divides the house into “guests” and “staff”, the parody curtsies in the “staff” section would have given Meghan Markle a run for her money. The moment Deepraj Singh began his beatboxing number, Friday morning’s schoolchildren were in the groove, gleefully supplying the “sizzle-sizzle-mash-mash” of the hotel kitchen. Every hand shot up when volunteers were needed for the ballroom scene and everyone bagged a snowball for the battle between stage and stalls.

Lesser writers might have been tempted to smuggle an eco-message into those snowballs but this fun-filled romp is that rare thing: a 21st-century children’s show with no moral whatsoever. There was a cod-serious moment during the finale when we were all reminded not to forget “the real meaning of this time of year . . . ” — suspenseful pause — “PUDDING!” followed by a reprise of a mad, bowl-stirring, tummy-rubbing routine to send everyone home happy. No children? Rent some.

★★★★☆

To December 24, theplace.org.uk

English National Ballet: The Nutcracker

London Coliseum

The previous evening had seen the opening of a more traditional family treat: English National Ballet’s annual run of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum. Wayne Eagling’s 2010 production has been repeatedly tweaked in a bid to make sense of its confusing narrative but it remains a strangely unlovable reading despite some fine dancing.

Francesco Gabriele Frola was a noble Nutcracker Prince and Thursday night’s Mouse King, the ever-excellent James Streeter, supplied welcome flashes of comedy, but Tchaikovsky’s music for act one’s dancing toys (crisply played by the ENB Philharmonic) is hijacked by Clara’s big sister and her three gormless suitors, robbing the ballet of its most child-friendly elements and risking a few tears before bedtime.

★★★☆☆

To January 7, ballet.org.uk