Upon entering The Studio at the back of the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh for Tortoise In A Nutshell’s charming restaging of their 2017 festive show Flutter, it is not so much a case of follow the yellow brick road, more follow the little blue footsteps which lead you through an archway of branches on either side of which snore an array of hibernating animals.

Not lions and tigers and bears, oh my. But squirrels and rabbits and hedgehogs, how sweet. Who by the end of the thirty-five minute show (plus VAT to accommodate an open invitation to engage and explore) have woken from their slumber to join Philip the Penguin and his red-nosed friends in a muted musical mash-up.

The premise is simple but effective: two girls enter a world of snow where, despite a few minor scrapes and disagreements, everything ends up (to paraphrase Denis Norden) all white on the night. Snowballs are hurled, star shapes are hewn and a spiral of stepping stones are hopped to and fro.

Then a little orange beak, followed by two bulging white eyes, break through a sheet of ice in search of… Not company, for even the sight of the girls’ ever-cheerful faces forces him to disappear into the deep quicker than Nessie upon hearing that Ruth Davidson was threatening to skinny dip if the SNP returned 50 MPs.

No, what Philip is after is food. In particular, fish. Though the odd tuna sandwich nicked from a picnic will suffice. Once nourished, the world is his oyster as he forges a close friendship through play. Which, really, is the essence of the show, pitched perfectly for two to six-year-olds.

Words are in short supply – wow, help, c’mon – but eye contact, smiles and gestures are aplenty as Hannah Venet and Christie Mitchell, accompanied by Jim Harbourne’s jaunty score, entice the audience into a magical winter wonderland to cries of… brrr! brrr! brrravo!

Peter Callaghan
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