The Tabard Theatre is a wonderfully intimate and welcoming space and Sigurd The Dragon Slayer is a fitting choice for their festive production. Aimed at children from pre- to junior school, it is a fun and enjoyable family show with something for everyone to enjoy.

The tale centres around a young boy, Sigurd, who dreams of one day being the greatest Viking of all time by becoming a great dragon slayer. Played by Laurie Scarlett with mounds of enthusiasm, the children in the audience seemed utterly enthralled by this brave and determined character. Scarlett plays the part well and holds the attention of her young audience brilliantly throughout. She has clearly made a choice to heighten the pitch of her voice and for me personally speaks rather too loud; however, this seems a deliberate and effective choice because she doesn’t give the children a moment’s chance to get side-tracked. She is a very apt children’s performer and an enjoyable storyteller. Peter Lloyd as Regin plays to the adults in the audience – those mums, dads and grandparents who need an injection of comedy and common sense that is often required at intermittent intervals throughout a show for children. He provides us with witty remarks and often breaks out of character to share an opinion about the tale that has little to do with the plot, but keeps the adults included and laughing along with this children’s tale. It is actually very well-timed and cleverly done.

The adult humour works better in this play than nearly any show I have seen for one simple reason; the actors aren’t taking themselves seriously. It’s always a terrible shame when I see actors trying to get the audience’s approval by trying too hard for a joke to land: they know a joke is coming up and set it up for us so blatantly that by the time the joke comes out it simply falls flat. This play is the opposite and I’m still not entirely sure how many of the jokes in the dialogue were improvised. Either way, the entire piece is highly amusing and comes across in an exceptionally spontaneous manner. Elinor Machen and Andrew Cunningham play Sigurd parents as well as many other small roles and characters that appear along Sigurd’s journey to becoming a great dragon slayer. Again, both are very humorous and sufficiently generous enough in the size of their gestures and vocal variety that their young audience seemed never to look away.

I was impressed by the speed in which the whole thing carries itself: the pace is excellent, jumping cleanly and quickly from scene to scene, making it easy to follow but with enough detail to keep us interested from minute to minute. The company have clearly considered their target audience carefully and the whole production is over in 55 minutes, so it’s an easy and enjoyable post-lunch show for any family who want to see something different to a pantomime.

Sigurd The Dragon Slayer is a cleanly constructed story with many of the conventions we expect when we want children to learn as well as enjoy a production. It combines many of the things that children love in a tale: a heroic young character, ambitious and strong-minded, who though at first is reluctant to follow his parents’ advice does so eventually and is therefore able to follow his dream to become what he has always wanted to be. He overcomes challenges he never thought he could and learns how people in this world are not always kind and good. It is a well-rounded story that also manages to avoid any sexual references, which nowadays that have become almost expected in pantomimes and family shows. It is actually quite refreshing to see a show that is funny because of the actual humour in the delivery, and not because someone slipped on a banana or made a reference to something dirty or rude.

It is an enjoyable show with something for everyone and I would recommend it to anyone with a young family who wish to do something a little special one afternoon or evening. Your children will enjoy it thoroughly and it is an interesting enough story to keep you interested throughout as well. It is an hour’s entertainment at a very reasonable price. With audience participation, sing-a-longs and even a dragon, it’s something your family can all enjoy.

Sigurd The Dragon Slayer is playing at the Tabard Theatre until 31 December 2015. For more information and tickets, see the Tabard Theatre website. Photo: Klevamunki Theatre Company.