TIME OUT, 17 JULY 2007

You could tell who’d read the programme notes before ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ began and it wasn’t Miffed from Muswell Hill. Nor was it the other huffy spectators who tutted, shouted and stormed off during London Bubble’s superlatively clever and arresting pre-show. A more incisive illustration of the way in which we demonise young people who, behind the big talk and even bigger hoodies, are still children, couldn’t have been made. And if you enjoy watching Guardianistas publicly, and in some cases very loudly, fail the Hand-Wringing Liberals Accreditation test, this will be a rare treat.

Loosely based on Edward Lear’s fantastical poem of the same name, playwright Simon Startin has transformed ‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’ into a play that’s part poetic comedy-drama and part social-realist-surrealist family theatre. It tells the story of David (played by the charismatic Ashley J) and his younger brother Daniel (Russell Westley) who are desperate to escape life with their alcoholic mother (Gráinne Gillis). Their wish for excitement is granted by the eponymous Dong (an eccentrically melancholic Daniel Copeland), who takes them to the mystical world of Gromboolia where baboons sing in barbershop quartets and French pussycats do a mean Michael Jackson.

But at the heart of the fun, frolics and hullabaloo of this outdoor promenade production (inventively directed by Karen Tomlin) is an unflinching look at the makings of an angry young man. The result is slightly awkward, as if Lewis Carroll and Alan Sillitoe had collaborated on a play for little people, and the spectacle almost drags the story to its clunky end. But that doesn’t stop it from being a thought-provoking piece of entertainment for all ages.