A clever adaptation of a well-loved tale brought puppets to life on stage to thrill the young crowd in the stalls.
Perhaps 'puppet' gives the wrong impression though, because although the main animal characters were operated on stage by real people standing behind them, the artistes were so accomplished that after the first few minutes you really didn't notice them. Honestly. So unintrusive were they, and such was their mastery of very believable puppets/models, that the story was all.
It runs pretty much along the lines of the famous film, with Farmer Hogget winning a piglet at the village fair and going on to bond with him as he grows up among the sheep dogs.
Genuinely sad moments like the mother sheep dog Fly saying goodbye as her pups are sold off are matched with the drama of sheep rustlers and the death of a ewe after being frightened by a dog.
They are balanced with Babe's success in winning round the doubters – and eventually walking away with the sheep dog trials' main prize.
This adaptation of the Dick King-Smith novel by top children's stage writer David Wood was good value at an hour and a quarter, with an interval for those with a penchant for ice cream.
Just a pity more good folk of Newark didn't think to nip in to avoid the showers by cosying down in the stalls for a surefire winner with the kids.
