Young fans marvel at live Charlie and Lola show

I find Charlie and Lola very "random", but then I am an adult and they probably seem perfectly normal in my three-year-old son Daniel's little world.

He loves Lola and spends many an hour either watching Charlie and Lola or looking at their books.

But, how was all this going to translate on the stage?

Watershed Productions have brought Charlie and Lola's best bestest play to Birmingham. Charlie, Lola, Lola's imaginary friend Soren Lorenson and Bat Cat are all puppets.

The job of theatre designer Sophie Charalambous was to help bring the characters created by Lauren Child to life.

She worked with Simon Buckley who designed and made the Charlie, Lola and Soren Lorenson puppets.

They all look like the illustrations on television and in the books - amazingly so.

Call me old fashioned though, but in my day you never saw the puppeteer (intentionally that is!)

But in this play they were supposed to be seen, which I found a little distracting at first.

But, young Daniel took it all in his stride and the only question he kept asking repeatedly was why were there toys at the front of the stage? Answer: They were there as props for Lola's untidy room.

The puppeteers were Andrew Cullimore as Charlie, Ceri Ashcroft as Lola, Matthew Crowfoot as Soren Lorenson and Ruth Calkin as Bat Cat.

Some of the freshest and funniest episodes of the loveable brother and sister were then performed.

The young Charlie and Lola fans sat glued to the stage as Lola pretended her imaginary friend Soren Lorenson had broken Charlie's space rocket, which he had made; Evil Mr Frog and Bat Cat battled it out; Lola being scared of the dark and Lola having to tidy up her bedroom.

The "ever so" magical adventure continued as paper butterflies dropped from the sky and the audience clamoured to catch them; stars sparkled in the sky ; bubbles floated out from the stage and the children shouted out to help Lola do her magic.

And not one of the little ones in the audience batted an eyelid when tigers drank pink milk (Lola's favourite drink) as this was the "fantastical" world of Charlie and his little sister Lola who is very funny.

The play runs until Sunday (June 6) with performances at 10.30am, 1pm and 3pm tomorrow (Saturday) and 11.30 and 2pm on Sunday.

There is also a Charlie and Lola family fun session tomorrow with puppet-making, drama and storytelling sessions – the price is £8 per child in addition to the £10 ticket price. It needs to be booked in advance on 0121 236 4455.

Lisa Bailey