One intriguing performance that I've come across is the Rag and Bone Puppet Theatre's production of The Tempest.

"A Shakespeare play for youngsters?" you ask. Well, after sitting in on a performance for students in Elgin St. Public School, I can vouch for the fact that the wideeyed kids moved from interest through concern for the plight of the main characters and on to hilarity at the antics of other characters, cheers when Miranda and Ferdinand kiss and delighted applause when they overcome all the plots and intrigues that keep them from marrying.

Ottawa actors, John Nolan and Kathy MacLellan, who have been performing for children in festivals, theatres (you may have seen their other productions at the NAC or GCTC) and schools all across the country ever since they founded Rag and Bone in 1978, know what grabs their young audiences.

As Kathy points out, The Tempest is such a great story for kids because you have your wizard and fairies and monsters and evil doers. It's a fairy tale really."

They have work-shopped the play, "many, many times" in schools, where they give the kids a brief outline of the story and then, the kids make their own puppets and do their own version. After seeing how much fun they had with the plot and poetry of Shakespeare,they decided to create the present production, which they've scaled down from two hours to 45 minutes.

And these puppets are not on strings. They are carried by the two black-garbed actors, who assume a different voice for each character. The advantage of this style of puppetry is that the young audience members don't spend all the time wondering how the puppets are manipulated but instead concentrate on the unfolding story.

In one scene, Kathy draped sheer black fabric over her head to become the mountain that small puppets climb. "It's kind of a peek-a-boo thing. The kids really love that I'm hidden under that fabric. There's a little moment of suspense and I love to make eye contact with them and share that little joke with them."

It's fabric too that creates the most theatrical scene when a courtly procession is created by clothing a towering puppet (a small head on a long pole) with yards and yards of sheer gold fabric that swirls across the stage.

The scene that brought the house down though was a dog chase with musician Russell Levia playing a snippet of background music from Pink Panther. That was probably what one serious-looking youngster was thinking of when he asked in a question-the-performers session at the end, "Did you change this because I can't believe that Shakespeare wrote the silly stuff."

John, the puppet head maker, who acts as Prospero in this Tempest, has a real knack for involving the children as he uses contemporary language to explain his and daughter Miranda's predicament since evil doers cast them away on a desert island. But throughout the play, contemporary speech is mixed with Shakespeare's poetic lines like "Where the bee sucks, there suck I. In a cowslip bell I lie."

Kathy loves to see the kids when they suddenly tune in to Shakespeare. "They're really surprised that we have a little bit of Shakespeare there, actual poetry but it doesn't turn them off. They tune in. It's almost as if they're saying "Whoa, I really have to listen to this."

Rag and Bone Puppet Theatre is presenting The Tempest on December 29 and 30 at 1 and 3 pm. in The School of Dance at 200 Crighton Street (the old Crighton Street School). For tickets ($10) and information, you can call the school at 238-7838.