These days, the elephant is something of a TV celeb - closely observed in programmes about its own life in the wild but also, in a series about tigers, acting as a discreet "camera-spy" while going about the daily business of visiting water-holes. Clearly, these distinctive, enigmatic creatures exert an appropriately massive pull on our curiosity and our imagination, so when life-size elephants (including a very cute baby) drift through the mists in this Dodgy Clutch production, there's a gasp of surprised delight from adults and children alike. Yes, these body-puppets are beautifully and persuasively crafted; however, it's the way the performers move that really captures the elephants' solemn, swaying dignity, makes the mother and baby relationship so tenderly affecting and the act of unwarranted slaughter so heart-stoppingly appalling.

These days, the elephant is something of a TV celeb - closely observed in programmes about its own life in the wild but also, in a series about tigers, acting as a discreet "camera-spy" while going about the daily business of visiting water-holes. Clearly, these distinctive, enigmatic creatures exert an appropriately massive pull on our curiosity and our imagination, so when life-size elephants (including a very cute baby) drift through the mists in this Dodgy Clutch production, there's a gasp of surprised delight from adults and children alike. Yes, these body-puppets are beautifully and persuasively crafted; however, it's the way the performers move that really captures the elephants' solemn, swaying dignity, makes the mother and baby relationship so tenderly affecting and the act of unwarranted slaughter so heart-stoppingly appalling.

And therein hangs the morality tale that powers this spectacular foray into cross-cultural story-telling, music-making and physical theatre.

The narrative, along with some tremendous dancing and singing, has its roots in South Africa's tribal traditions. A dead chief is refused entry to heaven because of past misdeeds. Cue a wheedling, spivvy Devil schooled in tricksy commedia del arte ways and the chief's "second chance" is again fraught with the insecurities and jealous rivalries that shadowed his life, his relationship with his younger, more spiritually aware brother, and caused him to betray ancestral codes.

And if the insidious influence of white hunters - reinforced by that Devil - inveigle the chief to stray from his heartland values, the western elements of music and movement infused by Dodgy Clutch ensure the chief, and Elephant, present a vivid saga of error and redemption that is engagingly, movingly universal.