One Small Step, a children’s show telling the story of the space race from Sputnik 1 to Apollo 11, might go down as one of the greatest achievements in the history of the Oxford Playhouse. The show was written in 2008 by the Playhouse stage door keeper David Hastings and its success meant it was launched (pun intended) into being performed in twenty countries and translated into seven languages. It was even beamed via satellite relay to the Gaza Strip.

Ten years on from its conception, the quality of One Small Step has not diminished and still has the power to captivate any audience. Seeing it on a rainy Sunday afternoon with an audience of mainly families with very young children, I was expecting some fidgeting and disruption. However, no matter how young, every child sat still, engaged and enraptured throughout.

This is in no small part down to the performances of Robin Hemmings and Shaelee Rooke, which are something to behold. Whilst they give some over-the-top characterisations with broad and silly accents used aplenty (as you would expect from a show that is both aimed at children and incredibly dependent on multi-roleing), there is something so calm and measured about both of their approaches to the show, which has an effective way of settling a young and potentially restless audience. This means Rooke and Hemmings keep humor in the show, without ever resorting to pantomime histrionics, and give genuine weight to the serious and dramatic moments.

I am so used to a stripped-back approach to studio theatre, I was incredibly surprised by the sheer amount of stuff that is crammed onto the Burton Taylor stage in Anna Orton’s epic junk pile set design. Whilst the stage resembles a corner of Trash Island from recent Wes Anderson film Isle of Dogs, every item is put to superb storytelling use. Footballs become planets, tea cakes become satellites, filling cabinets become the ladder of a landing craft, and cream Harrington jackets become space suits to create a small and tactile world that is also expansive and cinematic.

If I had one small criticism, it would be that the script needs some tiny tweaks to make sense for a 2018 audience. In the performance I saw, a joke about astronauts being like “Spam in a can” lead one child in the audience to loudly proclaim “what even IS spam?!” much to the embarrassment of his parents.

Director Toby Hulse has orchestrated something quite special. One Small Step is educational without being patronising, has humour and wit through incredible stabs of visual invention, and leaves a lot of other Oxford theatre for space dust. One Small Step is a sixty-minute nugget of joy and I can’t recommend it enough.