Jack and the Beanstalk

UCH, Limerick

***

Each member of the starry line-up on stage for Jack and the Beanstalk knows that the way to win the heart of every young iconoclast in the audience (750 of them on this occasion) is to get your sums wrong. Or your spelling. Uproarious corrections are the order of the day and there is no hesitation either in reminding the players of the original plot when things seem to stray off-message.

Under Karl Harpur's direction, the cast – led by Keith Duffy, Myles Breen and Richie Hayes – are unflagging in their determination to give their best and prove that even without Twink the show can sparkle. There's no indication that this is the second performance of the morning (they start things early in Limerick) and every indication that all this well-managed gaiety will continue to the end of the run.

Ends January 4