?Martha?s Wild Goose Chase?, presented by British Polka Theatre at the Bermuda Festival, is a charming tale.

The scene is set by a driftwood shack in front of a blue sky screen. There?s a mail box, driftwood and fishnets. The lights go out and it?s night. There?s a honking of geese then dawn. A triangular flag raises from the shack; ?GO AWAY?, it says.

An unseen hand puts out the laundry ? socks and a pair of underwear ? a guaranteed laugh from children. A hand cleans a window and does other chores. A broom pushes out the open door and seems to shoo everybody away. This is all funny.

Then Martha (Pauline Knowles) appears in her striped nightie. She speaks mostly, at first, in single words.

?Toilet? and flushing sounds are another guaranteed laugh. ?Shoo. Private Property. Dirty Birds.?

Unfortunately her Scottish accent is difficult to understand. She doesn?t like company yet checks her mailbox. Her spyglass is amazing. When she look through it she hears the people she is looking at talking.

She?s a grumpy woman who wants to be alone. And she listens to Swing. Postie (Rick Conte) appears to deliver mail. He wants to be friendly and trips over himself. He desperately wants ?Mrs. Donald? to come to the boat race. She doesn?t want to go.

It takes 20 minutes of this 50 minute show to set this scene. Then the real star appears ? the goose ? hiding at first. Rick Conte is also the puppeteer. He controls the white goose with sticks in the goose?s back and neck. They seem to move as one.

Martha chases around look(ing) for the goose. It?s very funny. ?He?s behind you!? shout the children. ?Shoo get away,? shouts Martha to the goose. He looks so funny with a toilet roll on his beak. But she does not want to be friends.

She leaves him outside at night in a lightening storm. So sad. The goose gets a cold and she feels sorry for him. She nurses him in the house and they become friends. But when she goes to the store he trashes the place.

He puts R&B on the radio and dances wildly. The audience goes wild with him. Martha returns and kicks him out. ?I don?t know what I was thinking of,? she says.

The goose wins her back with a flower. Then they have a wonderful day together fishing and flying a kite. They sleep together at night. In the moonlight the goose hears a flock of geese. He flies off.

Martha is sad but quickly gets over it. She is friendly to the Postie. They are awkward together but agree to go to the boat race together. When she hears a flock of geese she says, ?come back and see me next year.?

She takes down the ?GO AWAY? flag and puts up one that says, ?WELCOME.? The change from grumpy to friendly woman happens quickly. But perhaps, for children, it can happen this fast ? and maybe all of us.

I wish the slower, grumpy woman scene was shorter and the very funny goose scenes were longer.

Denise DeMoura