It is a simple concept - a rack of coats, each with a different story. However, encouraging under-sixes to suggest what those stories might be proves a perilous business. One of the actors pulls out a dusty old chimney-sweep's jacket and asks who might wear such a thing. "A strangler," comes the reply.
Adapted by Susan Mulholland from a book of old Celtic folk tales, Tattercoats is a welcome antidote to the surfeit of Cinderellas at this time of year. Everyone mocks poor Tatters for dressing in rags: but when she does get to the ball, in a glitzy outfit supplied not by a fairy godmother but a sympathetic family of geese, the prince fails to recognise her, having fallen for Tattercoats in her pre-made-over state.
Annie Rigby's production has bags of charm, a delightful cloth set designed by Andy Stephenson and the geese puppets are a hoot. It is also the only show for pre-school kids I have seen which manages to incorporate an improvised song about stranglers.
Northern Stage's show for older audiences also has an unconventional twist. Michael Hodgson's Scrooge is far from the nightcapped figure of legend: he appears slick, oily and scuttles around like a beetle. His stuttering anxiety draws attention to the fact that Scrooge suffered fits as a child, brought on by deprivations very similar to the author's own. It raises the question of whether Scrooge was Dickens's miserable alter ego.
Director Erica Whyman's clear storytelling recognises that the prime mission of Christmas shows is to hook children coming to the theatre for the first time for life. It was gratifying to see a gaggle of youngsters imploring an ice-cream seller at the interval to tell them if Tiny Tim would survive.
· Until January 12. Box office: 0191-230 5151.
