Rain on stage has been popular in recent years, drenching everything from Howard Davies's Philistines to the Take That musical, Never Forget. But rain is the entire show in Fevered Sleep's offering for three- and four-year-olds, the only theatre piece I know that asks younger members of the audience to wear their wellies and bring a change of clothes. (Like the company's previous show, A Forest, there is a participatory element.) For entertainment value and invention, it sure beats Peppa Pig's theatrical muddy puddles hands down, even if it's not quite as mind-bending as Fevered Sleep's mini-masterpiece, Brilliant.
From the very first drip, this is terrific fun, full of playfulness. Fluffy clouds, hanging from pegs on a washing line, set the tone for a show in which the stage gradually fills with water like a giant bath, fountains spout, a family of rubber ducks swim past and a paper boat disappears down a plughole. Two performers get very wet clowning about as the first spots of rain turn to a flood.
At times, it feels as if we are watching the properties of water being demonstrated just a little too thoroughly; at others, the performers seem to be having rather more fun than the audience. Yet as the show finds its rhythm, our enjoyment rises along with the water levels. It is hard not to smile as the children stamp and splash and a rainbow of umbrellas heralds the long-awaited emergence of the sun.
