Nonsense show that lacks silliness

It's with the hope of something magical that you go along to a family show set in a park at dusk and inspired by the nonsense poems of Edward Lear.

Sad to say, then, that the London Bubble company's painfully stagnant piece of promenade theatre squanders Lear's gift for silliness and furtive, quirky ideas.

What happens is something like this: we follow hoodie-wearing teenagers Dave and Dan as they venture, pursued by their alcoholic mother, into the the imaginary kingdom of Gromboolia - a place populated with green-haired Jumblies and assorted frolicsome talking animals.

Simon Startin's script is intended as a fantasy adventure about children who grow up too quickly and adults who haven't grown up enough, but its combination of drab social commentary and snippets of Lear's verse is jarring. There's a funny ode to Gorgonzola cheese sung by rats but we don't laugh as often as we should.

Karen Tomlin's production dawdles on for more than two hours and the children in the audience seemed more excited by the prospect of interval chocolate than they were by the story.

Ashley J plays his role as a juvenile delinquent with glee and Daniel Copeland's Dong radiates the yearning romantic agony of unrequited love. But this show never makes you want to dance by the light of the moon.

Until Aug 12, various parks in London, £10 to £15, £5 to £8 concs.
Tel: 020 7237 1663. www.londonbubble.org.uk

The Dong With A Luminous Nose
Gunnersbury Park
W3 8LQ