Stephanie Levi-John, Eve De Leon Allen and Lisa Howard in The House with Chicken Legs [Rah Petherbridge]

BABA Yaga is a forest-dwelling grandmother from Slavic folklore, who lives in a hut standing on chicken legs. Inspired by her Prussian grandmother’s stories, Sophie Anderson adapted this folk tale into a bestselling novel, which Les Enfants Terribles have reimagined for the stage.

Twelve-year-old Marinka (Eve de Leon Allen) is tired of moving. Her Baba (Lisa Howard) is a “yaga” – someone who guards the gateway between the living and the dead and helps the recently departed to the other side.

Every few weeks Marinka wakes up in a new location. It’s  hard to understand her grandmother’s music-loving spirits, and her only companion is a jackdaw (courtesy of  puppeteer Dan Willis).

Living in a world of shadows, she feels alienated from children her own age and has little opportunity to forge friendships. She also has no desire to inherit her grandmother’s role.

Imaginative storytelling, live music, original songs (co-written by Alexander Wolfe and Oliver Lansley), inventive puppetry (Samuel Wyer) and videography (Nina Dunn) are interwoven to terrific effect.

Although overlong and slightly dwarfed by the QEH’s vast auditorium, the cycle of life and death is sensitively handled and should resonate with young audiences and adults alike.

Until December 30
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