Dance House, Cardiff
A lonely deer enters a world of natural wonders in this dance-theatre show for children, with spellbinding songs by Casi Wyn

Never mind poor red-nosed Rudolph being called names, here’s a reindeer with a really raw deal. This Welsh-language dance-theatre show for children (recommended for ages five to nine) introduces the woefully cold and lonely Carw on Christmas Eve. With no companions, and the lights in the nearby village turned off, he follows a mysterious spark and trots tentatively into a dark forest. Fear not: Carw encounters mild danger but mostly abundant wonder, rendered with carefully calibrated stagecraft and warm performances. If you ever saw this, you might even say it glows.

The script and spellbinding songs are by Casi Wyn, former Welsh-language children’s poet laureate, and based on the 2020 animated short of the same name (the title translates as Dance of the Deer). Wyn narrates and sings, sporting a jolly, Santa-esque pink costume with woolly trim; her storytelling piques the audience’s curiosity and she has the right tone for fairytale suspense. There are folkloric elements in her natural world of a valley-cradle, an awakening forest and an “orchestra of creatures” playing hide and seek.