For some time now, the opening pages of Lyric programmes have included quotes about the theatre, including one from Mr JM Levy, outfitter, of King Street, Hammersmith, who in 1895 declared happily: "The Lyric dramas are well acted and produced. The plays illustrate the terrible consequences of a life of sin. Virtue always triumphs over evil."
I can't help feeling that Mr Levy would have wholeheartedly approved of The Adventures of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi's moralising tale about the little carved wooden puppet that becomes a substitute son for the poor woodcarver Geppetto.
Marcello Magni's appealingly rough-and-ready production, which combines puppetry with live actors, concentrates on the medium rather than the message. Even so - and despite Lee Hall's easy, entertaining dramatisation, which revels in Pinocchio's sheer naughtiness and children's love of rude words - there are times when it feels like sugared medicine.
This is certainly a most imaginative version of Pinocchio. But too often it is almost magic, not total enchantment. This is in part because, with the exception of some brilliant sequences - such as Pinocchio's flight on a bird's back over a green sheet field - the production suffers from the strongly episodic nature of the narrative. It is also because, unlike the best fairytales, Collodi's story is much stronger on morality than on metaphor. This makes it hard to make such scenes as the one in which Pinocchio and the runaway schoolboys are transformed into donkeys theatrically fantastical rather than merely plodding.
But the wit of the script and the good humour and generosity of the performers give the evening a feel-good factor despite the dark nature of some of material. This is a genuinely ensemble piece, but Eric Mallett's stiff- jointed Pinocchio and Paul Hunter's compassionate, comic Geppetto deserve special mention.
Until January 13. Box office: 020-8741 2311.
