Review: Visiting Grandad, Lakeside

We've all been there… being packed off as a child to a grandparent's home for the day where there is just nothing to do.

Mike Kenny's touching play about a little boy, probably about four years old, having to spend the day with Grandad Jack while his mum worked probably struck a chord with most of its audience, younger or older.

But the grandson, whose name we never learn, discovers he is not the only one who finds the prospect of the day ahead boring and he finds there is more to Grandad than an old man with a bad leg who spends a lot of time snoring in his rocking chair.

Presented by Tutti Frutti and York Theatre Royal, the role of the grandson is part sung narration by guitar-playing actor and puppeteer Chris Lindon as an adult looking back on the childhood experience.

He also operates, the life-like but, I have to say, somewhat creepy looking puppet, which plays the part of the boy.

Grandad Jack meanwhile is played by Stewart Thomas who gradually (a bit too gradually maybe for a young audience's attention span) leads his grandson on an adventure of the imagination, transforming the living room into a pirate in search of lost treasure, together cementing that special bond between them.

Kenny's writing, apparently drawn on his own experiences, contains both gentle humour and insight but is rather ponderous at times which meant it was only middling on my four-old-old son's "squirmometer".

A bit more silliness and action (hard when the grandfather character has a gammy leg) would have held his attention better.

The cosy living room set was supplemented by clever digital imagery and evocative lighting but I was left puzzled by the purpose of wooden pirate treasure chest, the contents of which remained unrevealed throughout.

LISA CHERRY-DOWNES