Professor Bumm’s Story Machine

Published Wednesday 31 August 2005 at 13:10 by Chris Bartlett

It is a simple formula but an effective one. Take two eccentric eggheads, name them Professor Ivor Bumm and Doctor Willy Whee, equip them with a schoolyard’s worth of scatological jokes and then sit back and watch an audience of assembled kids squeal and giggle. And if the above doesn’t get them, then unleash the water pistols.

This latest children’s show from the now tried and tested Black Sheep theatre company cuts straight to the heart of what gets the over sevens chuckling. Essentially it is silly characters with silly names being silly, but performers Andrew Jones and Ciaran Murtagh manage the deceptively simple feat of holding things together while the chaos erupts around them.

But they really prove their worth when, as the titular story machine breaks down, they have to make up stories based on words suggested by the audience. Here the parents can appreciate the improvisation talents of the two, as they seemingly pluck their funny and inventive yarns out of thin air - if they are not enjoying themselves too much to notice. Here the performers seem to be having almost as much fun as the kids, who, in the real acid test, remain totally enchanted and fidget-free throughout.