Owl at Home review – this Edinburgh fringe hoot is a wise choice for children

Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh
Songs, physical comedy and clever design come together in Theatr Iolo’s adaptation of Arnold Lobel’s offbeat story, aimed at over-fives

Arnold Lobel was a writer with a keen sense of the seasons. Frog and Toad Are Friends, one of my favourite books since childhood, has a wonderful story where the excitable Frog wakes up his grumpy friend Toad and tricks him into enjoying the dawn of spring with him. Those stories celebrate togetherness but Lobel’s collection Owl at Home is about aloneness and being at one with your surroundings – even when the arrival of winter brings a snowstorm blowing through your roost.

With his hair gelled into tufts, George Williams plays Owl in this adaptation by Rina Vergano and Theatr Iolo, directed by Lee Lyford. We find Williams dozing in an armchair on Anisha Fields’ accomplished set, which retains the cosy essence of Lobel’s illustrations but is less twee. The roost functions as an equally eccentric character in itself, filled with contraptions, dark wooden furniture and a periscope to nervously keep an eye on the world outside.