Olivier Award winner David Wood’s new touring adaptation of Babe The Sheep-Pig stops in Leeds’ Quarry Theatre where LEO OWEN caught the show.

CONVENIENTLY coinciding with half-term, the theatre’s predominantly-filled with excited little ones. Six cast members open, wearing sheep costumes as they dance and sing to much delight. Designer Madeleine Girling’s grass covered barn set, with movable bails and fences, doubles up as the Hogget’s home and the location of the sheepdog trials.

Wood’s adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s beloved children’s book starts at the Sheep Dog Trial before working backwards. Elderly sheepdog Fly (Nicola Blackman) is narrator, explaining how the moment came about as other cast members act out key moments, such as the guessing of Babe’s (Oliver Grant) weight at the county fair; the defeating of the sheep rustlers; the death of Ma and Babe’s training montage.

Eight cast members don animal costumes and operate a variety of puppets, including the titular pig, puppies, a cat, a cockerel, a turkey and ducks. Sick elderly ewe, Ma, is rather bizarrely placed on a wheelbarrow she overspills. Additional props, such as hats and umbrellas, transform lead animals into supporting human roles, such as the Sheep Dog Trial commentators and spectators. Farmer Hogget (Ben Ingles) and wife (Emma Barclay) wear plasticky masks to give them a cartoony unreal look in sync with the other characters. Girling’s mix of animal costume and puppetry risks alienating some viewers, forcing us to truly suspend disbelief but when the show’s subject matter is talking animals that’s hardly difficult. Her stand-out costume is her leather-clad wolf, complete with wire tail and skeletal robot frame.

Despite a rather harrowing interval cliff-hanger, there are still plenty of other nice touches to excite younger viewers, such as twerking rhyming sheep; audience chanting; Babe’s slightly surreal pre-comp techno sheep nightmare and comically melodramatic music during the competition as the sheep shuffle across the stage. Barnaby Race’s original live music adds energy to the show, giving it a céilí feel to accompany dance and sometimes indiscernible song.

The Oscar-winning 1995 film is a tough act to follow but Wood’s Babe ambitiously overcomes the theatrical limitations of space, remaining true to its source material and just as endearing.

Babe The Sheep-Pig was at The Playhouse February 15-18 before continuing its UK tour: http://www.babethepiglive.com/#tour