Edinburgh Fringe children’s shows reviews: Hello Beach | Owl at Home | The Truth About Trees and more

Hello Beach ★ ★ ★ ★

Assembly George Square (Venue 8) until 30 August

A family trip to the beach that doesn’t involve going home covered in sand sounds pretty nice. In this interactive show, everyone is invited to an indoor beach, with colourful mats and sand made from different materials and textures.

Main storyteller Bran is joined by Tor and Piper, who help enhance the story, interact directly with the audience, bring puppets to life and create a space for collective play.

The puppetry is particularly strong: a seagull flaps and hops across the beach in search of food, while a seal slowly twists and turns in the water. Props including a picnic basket and lengths of material used to create the sea add to the experience.

Surprisingly, with so much to see and interact with, it never feels messy or overwhelming. The company strikes the balance well. It’s a feast for the senses, with texture, sound, movement and colour all carefully considered. Smell is the one sense left to the imagination, with everyone encouraged to smell the sea and seaweed. The show also lightly encourages good beach behaviour, including wearing suncream, swimming between the red and yellow flags, taking rubbish home and, importantly, protecting your sandwiches from seagulls.

Enjoying The Scotsman's coverage of the Edinburgh festivals? For just £2 a month you can get unlimited access to scotsman.com plus 2-for-1 Fringe tickets. For details visit www.scotsman.com/subscriptions

Songs about a crab and other animals provide moments of connection and bring the audience back together if any minds have wandered. The whole piece is inclusive, with key-word signing integrated into Bran’s warm storytelling and audio description incorporated into the script. Both feel natural, adding to – rather than distracting from – the experience.

While the piece ends after 30 minutes or so, play is encouraged afterwards. This allows everyone to explore shells and rock pools if they haven't already. It’s a calm, relaxed space full of wonder and interaction. One important thing to note is that the fringe venue itself is not easily accessible. This is a shame given how many audience members arrived in buggies. Suzanne O'Brien

Owl at Home – Theatr Iolo ★ ★ ★

Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14) until 30 August

Owls are creatures of habit, and this is very much the focus of this sweet 45-minute piece centred on a lone owl in his treehouse.

George Williams plays the owl with quirky characterisation, gelled hair and round, lensless glasses. He brings great physical comedy as he moves around the set, jumping over chairs, cycling and battling with various props and elements.

He enjoys living at home and follows a strict daily routine: getting annoyed with his alarm clock, making endless cups of tea, eating mice and reading a book about owls. Perfectly happy with his life alone, we get to see his ordinary days turn into a series of playful scenes and songs.

There are multiple memorable moments, including a scene that begins with eating a pancake before developing into an elaborate routine with a hoover gathering up the crumbs. The ability to be both chaotic and controlled is a real skill.

The set design adds to the quirkiness and defines the space well, with large binoculars, a generator bike and hanging mice, each element and prop serving a purpose. Based on the illustrated book by Arnold Lobel, this is a charming and harmless little piece. Suzanne O'Brien

The Truth About Trees ★ ★ ★

Assembly George Square (Venue 8) until 30 August

Trees are witnesses to so much, if only we could hear the stories they hold in their branches. From kids climbing them, birds nesting, to people in high-vis jackets deciding which should be chopped down. Apropos Theatre’s show taps into the tales they have to tell through the sweet relationship between a boy, his grandpa and their love of words and trees.

It is a beautifully simple piece of storytelling exploring the importance of trees and the power of words, using the idea that when trees are turned into paper, their stories appear on the page.

The three performers warmly introduce themselves and bring Alfie, his grandpa, teacher and mother to life. Paper is used to tell stories throughout, including paper stencils and a projector that create scenes of growing trees and changing landscapes.

As Alfie follows his grandpa’s method of making paper, he enters the forest to collect branches, accompanied by gentle music. The puppet is endearing and conveys the vastness of the trees. It is a shame it is only used briefly. When an office development threatens local trees, Alfie is spurred into action.

Entirely suitable for its young audience, there’s plenty for adults to appreciate too. This intimate 45-minute piece needs no bells and whistles; its subtly important messages may leave audiences looking at trees in a new light. Suzanne O'Brien

READ MORE: Edinburgh Fringe children's shows reviews: Madame Chandelier’s Grand Theft Opera | SeedHeart + more

Darryl J Carrington: Out of the Box ★ ★ ★

Underbelly George Square (Venue 300) until 31 August

Filled with silliness, this comical show opens with an electronic jumping dog and soon after a Mission: Impossible-style challenge involving a rope laser. It’s a little weird, and these early routines don’t always land, but they gently warm the audience up.

When the juggling begins, it really gets going. Carrington impressively juggles balls, clubs, plungers and even exercise balls. The show is essentially a collection of funny moments and mini routines rather than a performance with a through-line – and it’s impossible to predict what is going to be taken out of the box next.

Much of the comedy comes from the audience participation, with volunteers invited on stage to help and perform. This creates an enjoyable unpredictability, although it also means some moments will inevitably work better than others in different performances.

Carrington is an engaging silent clown and visual comedian, uttering only a few syllables and sounds throughout the hour. He manages to get a surprising amount from his volunteers using so little to communicate, while his lovely character and supportive manner make them feel comfortable enough to embrace looking a bit daft.

The show also makes good use of the limitations of the space. Instead of ignoring the fact that a low ceiling and juggling don’t mix, it acknowledges the problem and turns it into another source of comedy. Suzanne O'Brien

Frogs in Bogs ★ ★ ★

The Green at Pleasance Courtyard (33) until 31 August

If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, you call Ghostbusters – but who do you call when there’s something nefarious happening to your toilet? The answer is, of course, Frogs and Bogs: a troupe of amphibian plumbers who are committed to keeping the city’s sewers clog-free.

With plenty of toilet humour and dance breaks, Frogs and Bogs is a high-octane romp which caters mostly to younger children. In this enjoyable buddy-cop caper from Welsh theatre group Familia, we follow the intrepid pair Turner and Constable as they try to defeat evil mastermind Cwac-Ty-Bach (a Duck brand bleach bottle with rubber gloves for wings). Our hosts Joel Dafydd and Poppy Horwood are both delightful; their unrelenting enthusiasm gets even the most cynical adults out of their seats and jumping around.

Adding to the charm, there’s a serious message amidst the silliness: the cast distribute free postcards after the show which audience members can send to their MPs in protest of our polluted waterways.

The show’s premise is suitably absurd that its attempts to weave together a coherent plot between all the dancing and puppetry can fall flat – there’s no need for exposition when you have so many vulgar one-liners about sewage at your disposal. Ariane Branigan

The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today

Enjoying the Arts & Culture journalism on scotsman.com? Make it easier to find by selecting us as a preferred Google source

Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here