Christmas time is a cracker bursting with great family drama. For many families, an outing to a yuletide show is an annual tradition, as much a part of the festivities as Morecambe And Wise reruns on telly and your uncle drinking too much whisky and crooning Jingle Bells, Jim Reeves-style, as soon as the Queen's speech is over.
From Ayr to Inverness, our playhouses are rarely so well populated as in the season of goodwill. However, if you thought there was nothing more to Christmas theatre than glitzy pantomimes starring TV personalities and incontinent ponies, you're behind the times. Oh yes you are!
Scottish theatre has been excelling in productions for children for some years, and it's an area of expertise which comes to the fore at Christmas time. Take, for example, The Littlest Christmas Tree, a show for pre-school children (particularly ages three to five), directed by children's theatre actor and director Andy Manley.
The play - which tells the story of the smallest pine tree in the forest (which discovers that it has a big job to do at Christmas) - will be presented in the special children's studio at the MacRobert Arts Centre at Stirling University. The show (which will be staged alongside the venue's traditional panto, Cinderella, in the main theatre) is the latest in the MacRob's excellent programme of work for younger children.
For Manley, there are some basic rules in creating theatre shows which appeal to such young audiences. The Littlest Christmas Tree has, he explains, "a strong emotional drive to the story, which is told very visually. Although there's a clear story, there's not necessarily a lot of words."
The visual element of the show, the director promises, will include an enchanting grotto for children to walk through as they enter the theatre, and all manner of colourful, playful goings-on on stage. It sounds almost too good to be just for little ones. If you don't have a four-year-old to hand, borrow one.
At the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, they have turned to another well-known children's theatre artist, Gill Robertson, artistic director of the acclaimed Musselburgh-based company Catherine Wheels. Having previously staged superb adaptations of classic stories such as Cyrano de Bergerac and Hansel And Gretel, she is bringing The Wizard Of Oz to Lyceum audiences.
Based upon the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage adaptation of Victor Fleming's famous 1939 movie, Robertson thinks the American tale is an inspired choice for Christmas. "It's a really sentimental story, with its message about why home is so important, and all that," she says. "For that reason, it's a really nice Christmas show. It's very heart-warming."
Which is not to say that she and designer Karen Tennant have simply tried to recreate Fleming's film on the Lyceum stage. "When we started, we struggled to get away from the film," Robertson admits. "Slowly, as we worked through it, we started to come to our own version. We wanted to achieve a good balance between what people expect and our own little touches. It will be a show which people recognise, but which will also surprise them."
As ever with Robertson's work, keeping young audience members engaged is paramount. "I've seen some big-scale work for families, and I've really wanted the story to grab me, but I've just been bored," the director laments. "With this, we've made some cuts in places. We've tried to keep it moving.
Fans of the movie will be relieved to know that there are no changes where the songs and music are concerned. Those who want to do their best Judy Garland impression - singing along to the likes of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Follow The Yellow Brick Road - can rest assured, the Lyceum's show is treating the much-loved song book, by Harold Arlen and EY Harburg, as sacrosanct.
There is another treat for those who love the film; on Fridays throughout the run, the Lyceum is inviting theatre goers young and old to come dressed as their favourite character from the story. I'll be going as the Tin Man; well, as everyone knows, theatre critics have no heart.
The Littlest Christmas Tree is at the MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling University, December 4-29.
Tickets: 01786 466 666 The Wizard Of Oz is at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, December 1-30. Tickets: 0131 248 4848
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