THEATRE Hullabaloo, based in Darlington, has a new play for children – a charming story containing a lesson in natural history, the life cycle of the caterpillar, and ideas about friendship between even the unlikeliest of playmates.

Pitched at an easy pace for youngsters aged four and over, it begins with Micky Cochrane's Bear waking up slowly and grumpily from winter hibernation and being surprised at finding a caterpillar in his lair.

Robert Welling, inching a finger puppet along a branch, becomes the manifestation of cosy wriggling green Caterpillar, then after the passage of seasons, athletically leaping and flitting as Butterfly with patterned shiny wings.

Along with Simon McCorry's cello-playing Musician/Bird on stage, there is a mechanised tree, the central prop and almost a character, imaginatively festooned with all manner of domestic items and amusing little pulleys and levers, devised by inventor Bear to provide his basic necessities of life such as a springtime cup of tea, a shower and methods for washing and drying his y-fronts.

The opening is a little prolonged and Bear's sore head awakening rather scary for the very young, but once Caterpillar arrives matters turn comical and touching, indeed human, as friendship develops over picnics and Bear's boastful storytelling about an exploit with a killer whale.

Sound and lighting effects create warmth and a soft glow, with the metamorphosis of the larva instructively staged, leading to the emergence of a hand-sized butterfly. In its larger manifestation, Butterfly outdoes Bear's flight of fancy with joyful accounts of his own adventures and discoveries up in the air.

The onset of winter and Butterfly's inevitable loss prompted a few tears here, but Gordon Poad's story and Dani Parr's direction ensure an uplifting end with nature's promise of a repeat performance.

Pru Farrier