Kid’s Fest 2012 brought in three shows: The tiger who came to tea, We’re going on a bear hunt and Stick Man. We had originally only planned to watch Tiger and Bear but since Q had such a great time at the two shows, we bought last minute tickets (at the door with ten minutes to go, no less) to catch Stick Man.

And what a gem of a show it turned out to be!

Based on the hugely successful book by Julia Donaldson, Stick Man tells the tale of an unlikely (anti)hero who lives in the family tree with his “Stick Lady Love and their Stick Children Three.” Stick Man’s adventure takes off when a dog steals him away and he has to somehow find his way home.

Brought to the stage by the acclaimed Scamp Theatre, the show mixes puppetry with actors and though I thought Q (and the other kids) would have problems identifying the puppet and actor as one, he really got into the show and even teared up when all seemed lost and Stick Man looked like he might never make it home and applauded when he finally did.

Though I was most apprehensive about this show, I ended enjoying this the most. Not just because I felt the way the Scamp Theatre engaged the children was brilliant but the show gave me an insight to Q, his emotional maturity (for a barely two year old anyway) and his thought process seeing as he felt the need to jabber out loud all through this show.

An utter gem of a day.