Bless the Ark for its ambition - children's Christmas entertainment without "Whassup", without TV stars and without pop music. The Fourth Wise Man is a lovely, gentle, humorous and thoughtful fable, a side-bar to the Christmas story, performed with talent, commitment and respect for the pre-teen audience.
And the pre-teens return the compliment: my five- and eight year-old were thoroughly taken with this show, especially with Ciaran McIntyre as the foolish fourth king who learns about life and love when he falls behind on the journey to Bethlehem. Most ambitiously, given the audience, The Fourth Wise Man, written by Johnny Hanrahan and John Browne, ends up centring on Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents. Maria (Gertrude Montgomery) is a mute, unmarried mater dolorosa who tags along with King Jack, who ends up saving her infant. The rest of the cast is terrific, too, as are the production values. There were slow moments in the play's 70 minutes, but the kids were apparently using these interludes to formulate ideas and questions about the meaning of Christ's birth. You might be more comfortable with "Whassup?".
Runs most days at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. until January 7th (tel: 01- 6707788)