Little Angel Studios, London
Ingenious puppetry and jolly performances help animate the story about an ever-expanding indoor menagerie

Many young families quickly find themselves running out of room. Perhaps that’s one more reason why Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s lively 1993 picture book A Squash and a Squeeze – their first collaboration – remains so well loved. The woes of a little old lady whose house feels too small began as a song Donaldson wrote for television, resulting in the catchy rhythms and rhymes in the book. Now the story has been adapted by Barb Jungr and Samantha Lane, with music and lyrics by Jungr, in a jolly if overstretched hour for children aged three to eight.

Lane’s production opens with a wise old man squeezing his way through a squash of young theatregoers to arrive at the lady’s doorstep. Kate Bunce’s set design directly reflects Scheffler’s illustrations and finds a smart solution to presenting a claustrophobic abode on a not particularly titchy stage. What at first looks like a wendy house intermittently spins around, its roof splitting to reveal a three-walled interior. With each farmyard animal that the lady is encouraged to bring in as part of the man’s canny scheme, the house closes up again and mayhem is heard within.