The unfortunate witch in Room on the Broom has a broken broomstick. Broken, because of the demands that friendship plays on her (and the broom). But in the end, her friends (a cat, a bird and a frog - the only mild criticism here - what was the frog's accent? Texan? Australian?) come to save her from the dragon (Giorgia: Mummy! It's a French dragon! - no darling, Welsh) and get a Rolls Royce of a broom as a reward.

The rest of the staging, though unmistakably Scheffler-esque, is remarkably simple with a giant moon and a few thickly branched trees scattered with brooms.

The play remains faithful to the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and uses the same formula of rhyme, repetition and redemption that makes their books such a hit with kids, especially preschoolers to about 6 years old. It's hard for parents to get a measure of age-appropriateness with the half-term theatre and cinema trips, but just to give a rule of thumb: our 6 & 7 year olds told me they preferred their trip to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid at the cinema, but our 4 year old definitely preferred Room on the Broom and was utterly engrossed from start to finish.

Prior to the trip we discussed how the broom might fly in a theatrical production - and it was a bit of a disappointment to the kids that it didn't. However, the catchy songs and excellent puppeteering with life-size animals and an anthropomorphised cat (and yes, in case there is any doubt she tells us at the start of the performance that she is The Cat) meant that the overall performance was a hit with its audience, a half term treat which wasn't too arduous for the pre-schooler parent to sit through.