Rumbustious Blessed snarls just like a wolf

Peter and the Wolf ***
Festival Theatre

BIG and shouty, Brian Blessed bludgeons the all-new prequel to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf into submission before dragging the original away in a manner not unlike a hunter dragging off his latest kill by the tail.

That is to say that while this ballet version of Peter and the Wolf contains delights and difficulties that are all its own, Blessed's unsubtle telling adds little, and actively detracts from the tale itself.

Peter and the Wolf is too short for a whole production of its own. So, while Prokofiev's original story takes up Act 2, the In The Wings company has commissioned a new chapter to Peter's story for Act 1.

Set on the day before Peter ventures out into the meadow in front of his grandfather's house and ends up capturing a wolf, the new ballet sees the young boy go off into the forest with his school friends to learn about the names of the plants.

While their old teacher finds a safe little forest glade for the children, Peter wanders off on his own and makes friends with a bird, a duck and a cat, whom he promptly invites to live with him at his grandfather's house.

It is tolerably well done. Blessed's rumbustious attitude to storytelling apart, he does an admirable job of introducing the idea that the different sections of the orchestra can be used to represent different aspects of a story.

If Blessed forces many elements of the story, particularly towards its climax, he deserves praise for refraining from overemphasising the rhyming couplets of Abi Bown's new text.

Also, the way he moves around the stage, blending into the background to allow the dancers to come forward and take over the telling of the tale, is subtly done.

The new music by Philip Feeney doesn't actually use Prokofiev's famous themes. Instead, it hints at them and does a grand job in depicting the happy children at play in the forest, the scary shadows and the vicious wolf.

The ballet aspect works well. The choreography is very angular and contains plenty of little visual puns. Certain elements of it, such as Peter's dance with the Bird and the preening, prowling cat, work very well indeed.

The ballet falls down in its depiction of the story. Having lines that specifically mention a cat's tail that doesn't actually exist seems merely lazy. But having whole sections of the Prokofiev original, when the narrator describes one thing while the dancers are doing another, just seems stupid.

The highlight of the show is the atmospheric lighting, which transforms a warm, autumnal forest into a truly spooky place when the wolf prowls out. The production is well-enough judged, however, to ensure that the wolf's later tumbling, playful dance is anything but scary to its young audience.

This is a strong attempt to update one of the great musical classics. It provides plenty to entertain while it introduces the different parts of the orchestra, but would benefit from a rather less bumptious narrator.

• Run ends today