Lapin Wants Ice Cream

With a pre-schooler’s brain bearing a remarkable resemblance to a sponge, it’s the perfect time to introduce a foreign language to them. Tania Czajka knows this, and has created a cast of fun characters to deliver the message.

Holidaying on the beach, Lapin the cuddly rabbit is too hot and needs cooling down. Only some glace un brocoli will do the trick, not the jus de pomme, fraise and d’orange offered to him. It is in this simple way that Czajka inserts French into the show, and the children’s minds, repeating key phrases until they start to stick.

Czajka may not be the most dynamic of storytellers, but she has a friendly style and a lovely colourful set on which to house Lapin and his friends the snail, bird and worm.

By the time the show comes to a close, all the children are counting ‘un, deux, trois’ along with Czajka, and saying ‘au revoir’ when they leave, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Institut français d’Ecosse, 225, 5366, until 27 Aug (not 19 & 26), 10am, £7 (£5).