Digger, Do And Dee-Dee

KILKENNY's Barnstorm theatre company has launched, at the Watergate, the latest in its excellent series of plays for children up to the early teens in taste and temperament. They again have the benefit of a clued in script by Maeve Ingoldsby, adapted from a German work named Bella, Boss Und Bulli, and here renamed Digger, Doe And Dee-Dee.

The story is a deceptively simple treatment of complex children's issues. Dee-Dee has just moved home and resents lit; the necessities imposed on her working mother, apparently separated, do not yet impress her. Doe is a poor little rich boy, chauffeur driven to school but neglected by his parents. Digger is a motherless tearaway, full of as yet harmless aggression. They become an odd trio of town musketeers.

There has to be a villain, and it is Scully the bully. Plots are laid to subvert him, with twists and turns which baffle and temporarily anger Dee-Dee's mother, who is sort of co opted to the gang. A decent handyman named Slattery also comes to the rescue, and all ends happily, even for Scully, finally more sinned against than sinning.

It is laced with topical fun and idiom, sometimes cheerfully vulgar, and a full house of juveniles received the opening performance with raucous acclaim. The eponymous trio are played by Aoife O'Beirne, Ben Palmer and Jack Desmond, and the other roles are taken by Roisin Gribbin, Robert English and Karl Shiels, all with brio. There is some lively music, and the set design of screens and other free standing pieces adapts freely to the plot's requirements. All good, lively fun with youthful relevance and resonance.